Our August 2020 Gin of the Month, Rock Rose Citrus Coastal Edition Gin, is full of incredible flavours from the coastal wilds that surround the Rock Rose Gin Distillery. From kelp to roots of rose, it is the distiller’s commitment to expressing the bounty of Scotland’s Highlands that has come to define what makes Rock Rose Gin Distillery’s gins so delicious and it has been that way from the distillery’s very beginnings.
Learn how Claire and Martin Murray, the distillers behind the incredible gin that our members can find in their August 2020 Gin of the Month box, developed their amazing original Rock Rose Gin recipe.
Wonder of the Wilderness
Foraging Sea Buckthorne
In all, Claire and Martin went through 55 iterations of their signature recipe, hunting for unique local botanicals as they went.
“We had a pretty simple goal: to create a gin that felt very local to Caithness. We worked with Brian Lamb, an amazing herbalist, who took us around the area and introduced us to some incredible ingredients.”
One key ingredient that Martin and Claire discovered was water mint, with its soft and refreshing flavour.
Water Mint
But the key to their botanical blend was a hearty little flower called Rhodiola Rosea – a rose in the rocks. This flowering plant can flourish in even the harshest environments, weathering the wind and rain on the rocky cliffs of Pentland Firth. Claire and Martin forage for their rose root amongst these ancient stones, following in the footsteps of the Vikings centuries before, who believed this little plant would give them the strength to continue their arduous sea journeys.
“We were looking for different, distinctive flavours, and we found that in Rhodiola Rosea. I believe we were the first to use it as a gin botanical.”
Rhodiola Rosea
Rather than distilling the whole plant or the petals, Martin and Claire use the roots of the rock rose. This unusual botanical imparts a delicate, almost rose-like flavour and aroma to their gin, and connects every drop to the wild cliffs of Caithness.
So key was this tenacious little flower to the botanical blend – and so fitting as a symbol of the distillery – that Claire and Martin named their signature gin after it. The first run of Rock Rose Gin was made using Elizabeth, the custom copper still that Martin helped the legendary still makers at John Dore & Co. design to his exact specifications.
Named after the Queen Mother, who loved Caithness (and gin!) and visited many times, this beautiful copper still was made by hand, with a botanical vapour basket perfectly suited to Claire and Martin’s style of distillation.
“I knew that getting the perfect still would be very important, and it’s something that we got right.”
Elizabeth, Rock Rose Gin Distillery’s first still.
With the distillery built and the gin produced, it was time to bottle up the spirit of Caithness. Martin and Claire had gone through 80 designs to find the perfect match for their new gin.
“We wanted something that felt handcrafted.”
The Murrays asked an agency to come up with some designs; within a few months, they had dozens of options clothes-pegged on a series of lines across their kitchen.
“We would look at them every time we walked by and take down any that we decided weren’t quite right. The design we went with was the only one that never came down.”
Rock Rose Gin bottles
Claire and Martin chose a ceramic bottle for their gin. With their hand-hewn feel, these bottles stand out in any gin collection, and Claire and Martin are happy to refill them for gin lovers who hate waste as much as they do. With so many unique features (and a stunning flavour profile) Rock Rose Gin took the gin world by storm, becoming the only Scottish product to win a three-star Great Taste Award in its first year – but this was just the beginning for this enterprising family distillery in the wilds of Caithness.
Claire and Martin use their original gin recipe as a base for Rock Rose Citrus Coastal Edition Gin, our exclusive August 2020 Gin of the Month. Find out what other botanicals they have added to make this incredibly bespoke gin so special for our members, here.
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