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If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect on Caorunn Gin’s tour experience.
I’ve visited many distilleries in my time covering the Scottish food and drink scene with my work, but this trip to Balmenach Distillery, the home of Caorunn Gin, felt a little different.
Not only because it was 20 degrees and glorious sunshine in May in Speyside, Scotland, but the immediate family-feel and intimacy I experienced stepping through the visitor doors threw me. It felt instantly familiar despite this being the first time I’d ever visited.
Before I’d even opened my mouth the team were on-hand to help, guiding me into the shop area where I was greeted by Caorunn’s brand home lead and guide, Fiona.
Her enthusiasm for the brand was electric, and hearing how she has built signage, created numerous trinkets and items that are now sold in the shop, and how supportive she is of her colleagues at the brand home reassured me I was in great hands.
We wasted no time in getting stuck into all things Caourunn and headed to the botanical garden outside where Fiona explained the different local ingredients used in the curation of one of Scotland’s finest gins.
There are five Scottish botanicals used to make Caorunn, and all are found within a 10-minute walk of the distillery. They includes rowan berries, heather, coul blush apple, dandelion and bog myrtle, plus six other traditional gin botanicals are used, too. The Celtic botanicals are hand-picked and all play a vital part in developing the unique and approachable flavour that Caorunn is known for.
One of my favouite parts of the tour was further discovering these important botanicals in the distillery itself.
Entering what was a former warehouse, the glorious smell of the gin hit first. Floral and fruity, with that hint of spice coming from the cassia bark, I couldn’t help but notice the large copper berry chamber sitting proudly at the rear.
This contraption is what makes Caorunn’s flavour so distinctive and individual. No other distillery in the world uses a working copper berry chamber to extract maximum flavour, and by doing so, this ensures the fragrances and oils of the botanicals are captured at their best.
After Fiona explained the production method of Caourunn it was time to uncover the smells of these ingredients and fill out the nose and taste chart. I had to identify how much of each botanical I could taste or smell the most and least, creating a spider diagram of the gin’s botanical profile wheel. This was really fun to do, and it was interesting to see how different everyone interpreted the liquid. Although I clearly have a little work to do in identifying rowan berries and heather better.
But what is any good distillery tour without the opportunity to taste some of the products. After retiring back to the visitor centre we were led into the tasting room where we received a few samples of different Caorunn gins to try.
Basing my perfect serve off a gin I absolutely adore, I couldn’t resist trying the Scottish raspberry expression, made with Perthshire berries, although I am also a big fan of the Blood Orange, and you can’t beat a classic Caorunn Gin and tonic.
Gin in hand, I ended the tour sitting at one of the tables outside, basking in the Scottish sunshine. The perfect way to enjoy a refreshing gin and tonic.
It is moments like this, surrounded by nature and its beauty, that truly mean the most.
We raised a glass to an afternoon well spent, cheersing to another brilliant Caorunn moment together. And here’s to many more…
