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The air is crisp and green. An autumnal carpet crunches under my boots as I trek up the hill, following my guide, Crafty Distillery founder Graham Taylor, through the Galloway Forest. We’re making for a patch of noble firs from which the distillery harvests fresh cones for its award-winning Hills & Harbour Gin. Taylor explains, “It’s not a common tree in the forest, but it is one that is easy to spot, because [the cones] grow upwards rather than downwards.” Is it size? Is it the process? Is it being done by hand (as far as gin can be)? I don’t think anyone really knows anymore. Gin Foundry discusses what craft is (and what it’s not) more succinctly than I ever could and I’m here to talk about Hills & Harbour, so that debate is for another time. Read our Hills & Harbour gin review; a beautifully balanced gin from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. Taylor is passionate about his artisanal grain-to-glass approach and creating spirits that reflect the place of their birth. The Gin Escape is his way of sharing that journey. “We were of the mindset that we really want to help people understand what provenance is and what craft really means. It is not driven by marketing – it is driven by taste, and coupling that with how we actually make our gin,” he explains. “It is a fun story of quality and provenance that I think is really exciting for a visitor, so they can leave a bit more enlightened. We have been unable to travel, so we are seeking more experiences, but especially now, people are wanting to know the story behind the brands in the cupboard: how they make it, the people and the process behind it.” We see a huge future here, we want to be part of it and we urge you to also jump on this bandwagon and give them a helping hand where you can. There’s something more than just a little special about it all, that’s for certain and we hope they can continue to grow and evolve to be an established player in the UK industry.
The tour offers a strong focus on touch, smell and taste to help transport you into the wondrous journey of transforming malted barley into scotch whisky. Your expert guide will carefully explain each stage as you explore our pioneering approach. Experience how our 100% Scottish barley, unique yeast and innovative processes have elevated the possibilities of whisky flavour to create our unique new make spirit. The other six botanicals are juniper (of course!), coriander, liquorice root, angelica root, orris root, bay leaf and green Szechuan pepper. Gin Distilling Hand-blown from 100% recycled glass and individually unique, they have a subtle blue/green tint that evokes the forests and coastline of our region. Each glass proudly carries the Hills & Harbour Gin roundel branding . The gin tends not to be distilled straight away and Crafty always has some GNS ready for when gin distillation is required. Developing Hills & Harbour GInIn Australia, Harbour and Hills Financial Services Pty Limited is registered with Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Nestled on the edge of Newton Stewart our modern Scotch Whisky & Scottish Gindistillery has been producing award-winning spirits and experience since 2017. Come and say hello, visit our shop, join a tour and enjoy panoramic views over the mighty Galloway Hills.
On the nose, the first impressions are quite vegetal and savoury - as if the seaweed was flaring out and yet if you linger for just a second, you’ll notice the soft citrus underneath as well as something more woody. Layered and intriguing. Putting the graft in craft,” is the Crafty Distillery slogan. And as one of only seven Scottish gin distillers (at the time of writing) to make their own base spirit, there’s definitely something in that. According to The Gin Cooperative, there are over 140 Scottish gin brands, meaning Craft Distillery is one of only 5% of Scottish brands who do this. The others buy this in and focus on the rectification process. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this and hundreds of amazing gins are made in this way. The texture of the gin is like delicate silk – so smooth and creamy. That extra effort to make the grain spirit from scratch really does pay dividends and brings so much of Hills & Harbour’s delightful character. With tonic This behind-the-scenes look at its gin making exemplifies what Crafty Distillery has been about since opening in 2017: namely, craft. It is one of only around a dozen gin distilleries in Scotland and England to make its own base spirit, which is distilled from locally grown wheat. As well as gin, this spirit is used to make Crafty’s 24 Seven Vodka and the soon-to-be-released Billy & Co whisky (named after Taylor’s late father, William, who built the distillery). Inside the Crafty Distillery. Credit: Crafty DistilleryHis dad, Bill, was a whisky lover and this is where his interest in spirits came from. At that point, Graham didn’t know too much about gin but continued to do his research on equipment and where to build. For all gin fans out there, a very warm welcome awaits you at Crafty Distillery in gorgeous Galloway to join us on a unique tour for your taste buds, where we’ll also share the secrets of our process. In the US/Canada, we haven’t yet found supplier to link to for Hills & Harbour (sorry!) but why not try another gin from Drizly. Let us know if you find a supplier and we’ll add it.
To build a grain-to-glass distillery takes time and planning, and that was certainly the case for Crafty. The idea was first planted in 2013 when Graham’s brother told him of a whisky distillery that was up for sale. This got him thinking about creating his own distillery. The selected botanicals are added to the pot the night before along with the painstakingly crafted GNS. The following morning, the other botanicals are added to the vapour basket and the still is turned on. A mixture of steep/boil and vapour infusion techniques are used and which botanicals go where (pot or basket) is one of the few closely guarded secrets in the entire process. He was getting ahead of himself at this point, though, as he didn’t yet have a distillery, nor even the land on which to build one. Before too long, though, that was sorted. Graham’s dad, Billy, is a builder, and a pretty good one at that. He’d spotted a piece of land offering uninterrupted views of the Galloway Hills that just so happened to fit into the budget. It was theirs for the taking, so they set to work designing a distillery, making sure it was one that didn’t just respect the land, but took full advantage of it, offering gorgeous, never-ending countryside views.Legally speaking, the ethanol is supposed to have been distilled to a minimum of 96%, which wipes out most traces of the matter from which it’s made. Still, there’s something about craft vodka that seems to betray this. At the smaller end of the scale, it always seems to carry a trace of the agricultural origin it is derived from. Be it grain, potato, sugar cane or wheat - it’ll cary through onto the final flavour and texture and no grain to glass spirit ever truly has a neutral base. Therein lies the magic of them, the added texture. When you drink a gin that has been made upon an in-house base, you almost always know straight away. There’s an undercurrent that murmurs gently beneath the surface. We, as nerds, will always prefer the added dimension it gives and love exploring how much the distiller has allow it to permeate into the end product, or neutralised it as best they can. Graham’s dad was a builder and built the distillery. The design uses many local materials and looks out onto a beautiful view of Galloway Hills. The LIVE virtual tastings are carried out in the last week of the month. Please keep an eye on our socials for confirmed dates! The lovely folk at Crafty Distillery are definitely not suggesting anybody should drink hard liquor 24/7. However, they have created a vodka that’s great at any time of the day… Given that it’s considerably more effort to make your own base spirit, and the fact the spirit is supposed to be tasteless, why bother?
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