Seaweed has been adopted by a number of British gin brands to add an umami tang to their gins. However, Taylor says he and his distillery manager Craig Rankin, a trained chef with high-end restaurant experience, view its savoury salinity in another way – through the lens of salt’s flavour-enhancing effect on the tastebuds. “It is amazing to me how many gins don’t use this science,” Taylor says. “It is really important to have that savoury quality going on because it enhances the flavour of the gin … if you don’t season something, you cannot open up the palate.” Graham Taylor, founder of Crafty Distillery. Credit: Crafty Distillery Mix together some dried seaweed powder and sea salt on a saucer. Run a lemon wedge around the rim of a margarita-style glass to wet it, then dip it in the seaweed and sea salt mix. To make the drink, add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into the rimmed glass.

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.”In 2015 the planning permission for a piece of land in his hometown of Newton Stewart was made. This was finally approved in 2016, before the first bottle was distilled in June 2017. 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! There’s a good reason why Crafty Distillery is awarded 5 stars on Trip Advisor and Visit Scotland. Come and see for yourself and book a one-of-a-kind tour. To taste, this is one of the smoothest gins we’ve had. We all agreed that there was very little lingering aftertaste on the palate and definitely got what we thought was the pine needles (if you’ve ever walked in a forest in the SW of Scotland you’ll be familiar with the lovely scent). We thought they worked really well in the gin, and gave it a distinctive feel. It’s really pleasing that team and Hills & Harbour make their own base spirit too. This’ll likely be a factor in putting Hills & Harbour gin at a more premium price point, but we think it shows the care and skill that’s gone into making this quality gin. 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. 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.

As a London Dry Gin, all the botanicals are added during the distillation process with “no essences, sweeteners or nonsense added post-production.” Craig Rankin explains. Crafty recommends a slice of fresh mango as a garnish to complement the tropical notes already present, but I found it also works well with orange and grapefruit. 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. 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. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Harbour & Hills Financial Services Limited emerged as a fintech company in 2010. Harbour & Hills is a registered money services operator, licensed by the HK Customs and Excise Department.In Australia, Harbour and Hills Financial Services Pty Limited is registered with Australian Securities and Investments Commission. This gin was a bit of a find…and we’re delighted we’ve found it! We can see where the hills and harbour in the names comes from; a really novel set of botanicals that make Hills & Harbour stand out. From the off, it was always going to be a gin destination and visitor attraction to help showcase their home in southwest Scotland. Visitors can tour the distillery, experience a variety of events, or even go on a foraging tour of the hills and coast of the area.

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. With tonic, the greenness really comes to the fore – and the texture remains sublime. You really get the creaminess of that wheat spirit. As you add more tonic, Hills & Harbour becomes more citrus in flavour with the seaweed dialling down. 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 DistilleryA 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. Read our Hills & Harbour gin review; a beautifully balanced gin from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. 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. 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.” 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 .