- 8 hours ago
On this special bonus episode of Scran we take you to the launch of Galloway distillery. Previously the Crafty Distillery in Newton Stewart, actor and drinks aficionado Sam Heughan has purchased the business to develop his Sassanach brand of spirits further.
In this episode you'll hear Sam giving a speech at the launch and Rosalind's chat with him afterwards where he shares his childhood memories of the area and his hopes for the distillery. It was a rather windy day and a noisey space so apologies about the audio quality.
You'll also hear from Craig Rankin, Master Distiller who Rosalind also chatted to about the new whisky brand as well as their other gin and vodka products. He gave her great insight into the process of creating the spirits and blends and about just how committed Sam Heughan is to his drinks project.
In this episode you'll hear Sam giving a speech at the launch and Rosalind's chat with him afterwards where he shares his childhood memories of the area and his hopes for the distillery. It was a rather windy day and a noisey space so apologies about the audio quality.
You'll also hear from Craig Rankin, Master Distiller who Rosalind also chatted to about the new whisky brand as well as their other gin and vodka products. He gave her great insight into the process of creating the spirits and blends and about just how committed Sam Heughan is to his drinks project.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Scran, the podcast passionate about the Scottish food and drink scene.
00:10I'm your host, Ross and Derskin, and on this special bonus episode, we take you to the launch
00:14of the Galloway Distillery. Previously the Crafty Distillery in Newton-Stewart, actor
00:19and drinks aficionado Sam Heughan has purchased the business to develop his Sassanac brand
00:24of spirits further. In this episode, you'll hear Sam giving a speech at the launch and
00:29my chat with him afterwards, where he shares his childhood memories of the area and his
00:33hopes for the distillery. It was quite a windy and wet day and a noisy space, apologies about
00:39the audio quality. You'll also hear from Craig Rankin, Master Distiller, who I chatted to
00:44about the new whisky brand, as well as their other gin and vodka products. He gave great
00:49insight into the process of creating the spirits and blends and about just how committed Sam
00:53Heughan is to his drinks projects.
01:01Friends, neighbours, family, this is Galloway. Thank you all to this small but mighty region
01:08of Scotland, a land that has so many secrets and so much to offer. Ladies and gentlemen,
01:14my name is Sam Heughan and I'd like to welcome home to you all to our Galloway distillery.
01:21I don't know who wrote this. It must have been late last night. Please have a warm Galloway
01:27welcome to you all. I appreciate you all coming, those who live locally and those who come from
01:33the big cities for making the journey to celebrate with us today. It wouldn't be the true Galloway welcome
01:39if we didn't have some drich weather, but you can't have everything you want. Today is not just a
01:48homecoming for me, it is a full circle. I stand before you not as Jamie Fraser or Macbeth, I am
01:56allowed to say that. I stand here as the lad who used to play in the forest and around the castle
02:02Lewins on the shores of Loch Ken, not far from me. I grew up here in Galloway. I've always felt thankful
02:09for the lucky star I had. Thankful to my mother, despite being a sasach, for moving here before
02:16I was born. I'm thankful for the community that embraced and supported us. This is the soil that
02:24raised me. This is where I learned the meaning of imagination, creativity, hard work of friendship
02:31and community. And I remember standing on the ruined castle walls pretending to be a knight or I've
02:39written an elf, yes, or a king with a head full of wonder and a heart full of ancient stories and
02:47limitless dreams. As Angela mentioned, Galloway has so much tangible history. I remember walking those
02:56worn paths that our ancestors walked centuries ago. I listened to the stories passed down in music
03:02in song. I remember how crystal clear and refreshing the water in the loch is. And once you're in and the
03:10shock is over, it's a joy to swim in very briefly. I remember thinking, even as a boy, that this is a
03:19special place. Over my career as an actor, I've had the privilege to travel the world. Yet no matter where
03:25I travel to, what remarkable places I've seen, I meet interesting people, we begin to talk, they always
03:32ask, and I'm very proud to tell them where I'm from. Every time I see the sunrise over the water or a
03:39sunset on a foreign city skyline, I always find that part of me is still back here.
03:45And now, after years of traveling, learning, building, dreaming, we're coming home. Because no matter how
03:56far I've gone, this, this land, this place, this community has always been my home. And the Galloway
04:04community is vibrant and unique. Growing up, our friends were musicians, farmers, artists, clog makers,
04:11the local doctor, the local schoolmaster, the landowner, Buddhist converts, and filmmakers.
04:18This community has kept traditions alive while embracing the change. And you have built lives
04:24of meaning, of kindness, and of grit. You've built community. And you've also kept that Galloway
04:32gallows humor. So now, I feel it's time for me to give back to this place where I first learned
04:38to dream, to imagine great things, to the soil that nourished my dream, and the people
04:43who shaped me. And I'm here to invest, but not just money, more importantly, heart. And
04:50we're launching something really special here, I believe. Not just a business, not just a
04:55distillery. We're building a destination and sharing this precious waste with the rest of
05:00the world. I want to celebrate. I want to celebrate our heritage, our stories, our nature, while
05:07inviting others to experience it with us. And I see an opportunity to shine a spotlight on
05:13all that Galloway has to offer. And this is just the first step. So to our new community,
05:18thank you. Thank you for being patient. We're chasing a dream. And I ask you to join me and
05:25help Galloway flourish. I hope that we may show all those that come to visit, as Angela said,
05:30its spirit, its beauty, its character, and the Galloway. Cheers, Sanger. Thank you.
05:38I'm here at Galloway Distillery with Sam Hewitt.
05:51Cheers. Good to see you. Thanks for coming here.
05:53That's all right. Thanks for having us. So we are here today because you've got a big
05:57announcement. It's exciting news. Do you want to tell us what's going on?
06:00Yes, we're here in Galloway. This is the Galloway Distillery. It's a project we've been working
06:04on for a number of years, but I'm really happy. It's our opening day. The weather gods have
06:09brought the Galloway Scottish weather, but we're really happy. It's a place that we're really
06:15hoping to expand on and produce really special spirits. So you've taken over?
06:22Yes. This is a new project. We wanted to create a distillery in Galloway. It's basically a homecoming
06:28for me. I was born and raised here. I feel very, very thankful. It's such an amazing place.
06:34People come to Scotland, especially tourists, and they go up north and they go to Skye and
06:38they go to Glencoe, but actually there's so much to discover in Galloway. It really has so
06:44much from the coastline to amazing ruins to stone circles and, of course, amazing spirits.
06:51And my journey here was basically I started working with the guys here on our wild Scottish
06:58gin a number of years ago. We realized that we really wanted to create a new distillery
07:02here in New Galloway.
07:04And so we've got Sassanac, right?
07:07This is the Sassanac, yeah. So we're a house of many brands now. We have the Galloway Distillery,
07:12we have Sassanac, we've also got Hills and Harbour, and we're going to start producing. Today we're
07:16about to fill our first barrel of Galloway whiskey.
07:20And you're producing a vodka as well, is that right? Sassanac.
07:23We are, yes, we're, it's the best of Scotland. Produce, the wheat is from Galloway. So Galloway
07:30wheat, I looked at different kinds of vodkas and I wasn't much of a vodka fan and I really
07:35dug into it. And we realized Scotland produces amazing wheat. And then we realized actually
07:41apples and brambles adds like a real crisp freshness to it, a brightness to it. But also
07:46the brambles add this like, I don't know, like a richness to it. So it's a very luxurious
07:52vodka, really delicious. So I think we'll have a lot of converse when they try this one.
07:56And I was speaking to you Craig earlier, you are very heavily involved with the creation
07:59of these, because you know how there's some, you know, famous people who just put their
08:02names to things, but you're actually really quite involved, aren't you?
08:05I mean, the Gallery Distillery is my dream. Self-financed. We've been working on this
08:12for a long time. The Sassanach, obviously, is the same. Yeah, absolutely. And I think
08:18poor Craig, our master distiller, you know, I put him through the wringer with the gin
08:22and then the vodka. We thought the vodka would be easy, but actually it turns out it's actually
08:26really complicated. But I think we've created something really, really special, really unique.
08:31I think people are going to really want to it. You know, I think it's a real representation
08:35of great Scottish produce.
08:38And can you tell us a bit about the whisky that you're putting in Cass today?
08:41Today, we're doing a PX sherry cask. We have hundreds of barrels already that we've been
08:50putting aside and laying down, but this is our first one for the Gallery Distillery.
08:54So, yeah, we're going to have a real, I don't know, a real exploration of what is good
08:59Galloway whisky. We also are growing our own barley and we have a couple of fields of barley
09:05here. So we're thinking about, you know, obviously at some point we'd love to do a single malt.
09:09But yeah, there's a lot of ideas out there. I think perhaps the first whisky release will
09:16probably be a blend, because obviously it takes time. But we're getting there and I'm
09:21really excited. The whisky is phenomenal. Our new make is amazing.
09:25Yeah, because there's been a lot of sort of technical work with the university and, you
09:28know, it's not just, it's not your usual distillery. I've seen it and it's quite.
09:33We go to the nth degree. Craig is, you know, a master of what he does. And, you know, I mean,
09:38looking at, you know, the gin process, you know, we've got, you know, we're freeze drying
09:43botanicals. We're creating resins. We're really kind of going in depth to it. And I think if
09:49you try our new make, I'm just really amazed to see where it goes when it's been aged in
09:54woods, because it's got some really interesting kind of like tropical fruit flavor in it.
10:01So yeah, we'll see what happens when it sits in a delicious sherry cast for a number of
10:05years.
10:06And so, yeah, first release, another blend. So it'd be another kind of similar to the one
10:10you've already bought.
10:11Yeah. I mean, we actually haven't decided. We've got a number of avenues we're looking
10:15at, but I would love to do, you know, something that's slightly different. Obviously, we've
10:20got, you know, this beautiful Satsanac whiskey, which is a great blend, but yeah, I don't
10:25know how we're going to finish it yet. I've got a number of avenues. I'd love, I love wine
10:29barrels as well. I think they'll be really interesting. Maybe dessert wine. Who knows?
10:35Yeah. I mean, it's the same time.
10:36It's honestly, it's like a playground. It's amazing getting to play with different barrels
10:40and seeing how it ages over time as well. And obviously, you know, things take time.
10:45I'm here in Scotland. The weather's not the best, but it's so fun. These guys we're working
10:50with are amazing. Our whole team here, so hardworking. And we're just trying to create,
10:54as you can see, you know, this sort of beautiful surroundings. There's so much nature, so much
10:59history in Galloway. So we want to impart a bit of that to people that come visit.
11:04And, you know, you've talked about your childhood here and like, you know, this is your coming
11:07home. How much do you see yourself spending time here? Like in the future?
11:11I mean, I've already been here a lot. You know, we've came down. These are our boffies
11:17that we've built. These are made with 100% Scottish oak, handmade. There's no like nails
11:24or anything. It's all been wood pegs. So it's really crafted. And we want to make these into
11:29tasting rooms. You can hire them either separately or together. We want to do different tastings.
11:34I've been down here a lot. You know, this wasn't here at all. We've put down all this
11:38paving, created this outdoor area and planted over a hundred botanicals, which are all coming
11:44up now, which look fantastic and smell amazing. You can smell them now. But yeah, so I'm heavily
11:48involved. I'll be here a lot, as much as I can be.
11:52Any future plans that you can tell us about?
11:55We, yeah, we, we've planning permission and we're working towards a larger whiskey distillery,
12:02which will be over the site, just to the east of the current distillery. That's where the
12:09car park is now. Yeah, we'd love to expand and just invite more people down, not just to see the
12:15distillery, but to see Galloway. It's got so much to offer. You know, as I said, there's great coastline,
12:20there's amazing history, amazing castles and food producers. So we want to celebrate them
12:25as well. So we're trying to highlight a lot of craft people. We've got amazing ceramicists
12:31who's doing our, I guess, some tableware, glassware. We've got some leather makers, local illustrators
12:40doing our local and our branding. So we really want to like help, I don't know, showcase Galloway
12:46and everything else to offer.
12:47So when you came to these guys for your gin, did you sort of come with the idea of like with the
12:53distillery and take them over the distillery or did it all kind of happen?
12:56We've actually been looking for a long time. We had a number of different sites that we were looking
13:00at, but honestly, this just felt right. You know, the guys here are all local, local boys. I'm a local
13:08boy and I just love working with them. And then we realized, you know, this is an opportunity.
13:13We decided that Galloway needs its own distillery, its own brand. I think Scotland itself needs,
13:21you know, a new region. I think the Galloway should be its own region. Such an amazing place,
13:27very different to the rest of Scotland. You know, 12 miles from Ireland, you can see the
13:31lights of Ireland. You can see the Isle of Man. You can see England, the Lake District across
13:36the Solway of Firth. It's had history of like Vikings here, you know, the Romans. You've got
13:41the Gales, you know. So it really was, it really is a very, very special place.
13:47Which is interesting because the Lowland is so, the Lowland region in Swiski is so massive.
13:52Like Fife was trying to kind of do its own thing. You guys are, so it would be interesting to see
13:56if it does break up into like smaller little pockets. Yeah, I think, you know, the Lowland region
14:00is, you know, it's such a large area and I think it needs more categorization, I guess. But also,
14:08yeah, looking, I mean, there are a couple of other distilleries here. We'd love to like perhaps
14:12start working with them, create a, you know, a Galloway distillery tour. Yeah, there's so much
14:18to explore here and I think it really is an undiscovered place. So yeah, much, much more work to do as
14:24well. Nice. And just quickly, on your new book, The Foxeal Dineys. Yes, I'm with you.
14:29It's over there. It's over there. That's an exciting time as well. So you've obviously
14:33clearly been talking about cocktails quite a while. Do you have a wonderful vodka or, you
14:36know, the new spirit coming out, do you have a cocktail you'd recommend for your new vodka?
14:40Oh, I mean, so for the vodka, well, look, I'm a martini guy and I've always been a gin,
14:46dry gin martini. Vodka makes an amazing martini. But yeah, I mean, it's, vodka's kind of goes
14:53in a lot of cocktails. The Cocktail Diaries book came about because we were meeting a
14:59lot of producers. A lot of my travels around Scotland, but also abroad to Mexico. We did
15:06our tequila collaboration and just meeting amazing producers, amazing bartenders. I kind
15:11of wanted just to, I guess, share some of the amazing stories and experiences I've had
15:18whilst on this spirits adventure. So yeah, it's out now and it's been a really fun project
15:24to do. And we've got a bit at the back, which has some bartenders from the top 50 bars in
15:29the world. And they've gone away and created some cocktails with the Sassenach and come up
15:34with these amazing cocktails. So yeah, a lot of fun to celebrate. I don't know, geniuses
15:39really. Great mixologists.
15:41Oh yeah, it's become like almost like a chef.
15:43It really is. I mean, cocktail making is like being a Michelin star chef. And some places
15:47are going to such large degree of process. And so the cocktails in the book should be
15:53very accessible. I'm not a mixologist. I'm not a great bartender, but I am an enthusiast.
16:00And I'm trying to show that actually it's really easy. A couple ingredients, three ingredient
16:04cocktails are simple. They're classic. They go deep back to the 1800s. So easy to make.
16:09And then they get more complex as you go through the book.
16:13I meant to ask you this last time in your poll, so I could get asked this, but when we last
16:16spoke about your gin and you like a martini, shaking or stirred?
16:20Oh, come on now. It's got to be stirred. But actually, you know, it depends on the occasion.
16:23I think that's always like, you know, what's your favorite drink or how do you like things?
16:27But yeah, I mean, I would say the vodka, if you want something refreshing, you know, you
16:31shake it and, you know, you get a lot more ice shards in there. You're going to get a
16:35lot more dilution. So it's going to be more refreshing. Whereas like a stirred down cocktail
16:39is obviously going to be a lot more strong, a lot less diluted. Really depends on the
16:44situation, I guess.
16:46Anything else that you...
16:47I just say thank you so much for coming. Please come down to Galloway. It's an amazing
16:51place. Even when the weather's grief like this, we've got this beautiful distillery, amazing
16:56courtyard and come and try our square. See what we've got to offer here in Galloway.
17:00Cheers to that. It's great to see you. Thanks for coming.
17:03Pleasure.
17:12This is Craig, Master Distiller, Commercial Director for the Sins. And I just want to share
17:20a bit about the ethos that runs through the veins here at Galloway Distillery. And that
17:27ethos we call the Galloway. Now, I hear you all think, you know, what is that way and where
17:35does it come from? Or is he just saying Galloway a wee bit funny? But, you know, I started on
17:43this journey with Sam a few years ago when we were creating Sassanac Wild Scottish Gin and we were about
17:51six months deep, maybe 48 recipes deep and about 18 pioneering techniques. And I turned to him and
18:00realised we were nowhere near completion. And that was the moment I realised that we both shared this
18:07way, you know, this way that good just wasn't good enough for us. You know, we had this, not a want, but a need to turn good into special.
18:20So, you know, creating stuff that's good, it's relatively easy. But that portion between good and special,
18:27that's a really tough road. It's a really, you know, it takes more than just experience and distilling or a bit of learned knowledge.
18:36It takes big creativity, imagination, passion. And, you know, where does that come from? You know, where does that shared way come from?
18:47Well, Sam, like me, like many others in this room, we all grew up in Galloway.
18:53And Galloway is a really, you know, accessible but detached place, full of history, folklore, myths, legends.
19:03And, you know, as kids in Galloway, we went out and explored those wilds.
19:09And, you know, on a day in a life, it looked a bit like this. We'd get chucked out of the house because your mother needed to clean the house.
19:15And, you know, you would go and start the day building huts in the woods and then get chased off by white lady ghosts.
19:24You know, when you'd arrive at some standing stones and try and perform some weird ceremony.
19:30And then you'd wind off the day pretending to be a thing in some ruined castle, you know.
19:35And Galloway does something really special to you, you know, if you're open to it.
19:41And it creates these wildly vivid imaginations, creativity, passion, curiosity.
19:49And that is all the things that drives us in everything we do to go much further here, to uncover much more.
19:56And this way, this is the way that we call the Galloway.
20:02So if we could just all war cry a toast and raise your glasses to the Galloway.
20:11Cheers.
20:12Cheers.
20:12Cheers.
20:12Cheers.
20:23I'd say the cooperages and everybody in between pull their hair out of our QC process when we're sending them back and rejecting them.
20:31But I think we've established now that everybody knows that we demand only the highest of quality.
20:37And, you know, there's a firm belief and kind of half leaning on science, half leaning on, you know, the layman and using theory and technique to really just look after every single stage of the process.
20:55And you would assume that all of those little parts make up something really special.
21:00And that's what we have dropping off the still and coming out of the cast today.
21:04But, yeah, still no official release yet.
21:09Chris, how long have you been doing, how long have you been making the whiskey for?
21:12So, the oldest is just over three years.
21:16So, yeah, so there's, you're past that point.
21:19Oh, nice.
21:20But, yeah, the releases, you know, like with everything else, you know, we won't accept a cast, we won't accept less than 168 hour fermentation.
21:29We only accept a lipid count of X amount in a barley.
21:33You know, there's no hard and fast release date for when we'll release it.
21:37You know, it needs to get to that place that we really love to want to do it.
21:42Yeah.
21:43And just for my own understanding, when it comes to the Sassanac, which has obviously been made by Lawful Mind, how do you, how is that going to work with this situation?
21:51Yeah, so like, you know, blends by default come from lots of different distilleries and, you know, a blend we might endeavor in another blend.
22:03In fact, there's already a plan in place to really see if we can have a more localized blend.
22:09Well, what's the space for that?
22:11But I think there's always a place for blends.
22:14There's a lot of creativity that's available in a blend.
22:19And a blend by nature, yeah, it's from lots of different distilleries, but it doesn't mean that you can't achieve special things with them.
22:24And so that blend is a beautiful product, you know, and much to, you know, the commercial director in me, you know, there's everything from 21-year-old single grain in that to 18-year-old single malt.
22:39You know, that is no, you know, famous grouse.
22:44You know, there is some really fine malts on that single grain.
22:47It's heavily aged and really bright and citrusy.
22:51So these are fantastic products and that Cessnac, you know, can sing loud and proud and continue, the Spirit Foam can continue to work its magic out there.
23:01And we might look at one other blend to really, yeah, to really kind of celebrate a more localized area in a different style.
23:12I think there will always be a place for us to flex our creativity in blended whiskey as well.
23:21So there's no juxtaposition with that.
23:25And every product that is in the Cessnac range, you know, I can't stress this enough.
23:32Like, you know, Sam is a true artisan.
23:37He is really involved in the development.
23:40I mean, the Cessnac Wild Scottish Gin, it took us over 13 months.
23:44It was like over 100 recipes, it was like, you know, 20 pioneering techniques.
23:50You know, it was like WhatsApps at three in the morning about toasting oats a wee bit more, you know, to the point where I just burnt them at one stage and went like, is this enough toasting?
23:59And then he'd be like, no, no, that's way too much and we'd go back.
24:02He is a tortured artisan.
24:04And make no mistake, this is not just like, you know, a fame-led brand.
24:08He is very passionate and he is really part of that process.
24:13To say Loch Lomond made that, it's probably not so true.
24:17You know, Sam's had a massive hand alongside, you know, the technical hands of Mr. Henry to get that over the line.
24:27But really, the true inspiration and the overall final product, it really comes from what Sam's, you know, Sam's mind.
24:35And yeah, that Cessnac Wild Scottish Gin was, yeah, it's beautiful.
24:39I mean, the first time I sat down with Sam, you know, I was like, so, you know, we're going to make a gin.
24:46The world's your oyster with botanicals.
24:48But there's one thing we need in there, which is juniper, right?
24:52So we don't have to worry about that.
24:53So now we can get some foreign movement.
24:55He's like, well, about that, I don't love juniper.
24:59And you're like, oh, for God's sake.
25:02And, you know, instead of just, you know, leaving it at that and, you know, putting less juniper in,
25:07I started thinking, you know, what is it that you dislike about juniper?
25:10And he's like, well, I don't like the really robust bitterness of it.
25:13But, you know, I love the kind of, you know, the more high-end notes.
25:16So I started looking at, you know, the process of where we can lift certain pinnins and terpenes out of it
25:22and leave the rest away.
25:23And actually, just for that one ingredient, and believe me, every other ingredient ended up like this,
25:29it is blitzed, macerated for two days, put through four tons of pressure
25:34and distilled with none of the actual whole juniper in it.
25:39And what that does is give this big, massive nose of juniper, but none of the bitterness.
25:46It's all these, you know, the more high-end pinnins and terpenes and more citrusy notes of it.
25:51So instead of that juniper dragging you down, it's so bright and vibrant.
25:58So, you know, every single ingredient was taken really, like, you know, considered
26:04and distilled in a very different way.
26:06I mean, the rhubarb and blabberies are hard-frozen to minus 40 degrees,
26:12so they don't get too stewed by the end of distillation.
26:15God, the Scots pine resin has to go in a different distillation, separate distillation,
26:19because it's like, you know, hard-packed glue by the end of it.
26:22But it gives these lovely, fresh eucalyptus, almost just smell of the Galloway Forest in it,
26:30really nice and fresh.
26:31And, yeah, as I said, you know, we spent a whole month toasting oats
26:35and doing about 15 different iterations of oat vodka, toasted oat vodka,
26:39just to find that right level of savoury to balance out against all these citrusy notes
26:44that put that complexity in.
26:46And so, you know, it's kind of, a lot of this goes beyond, you know,
26:52a lot of this needs to go beyond a bit of experience in distilling and learn knowledge.
26:57You know, it goes into another space to really kind of convert into really special products.
27:03And that doesn't necessarily come from, you know, a 20-year experience distiller,
27:09you know, that comes from imagination and creativity.
27:12It's probably hard for people to understand, but believe me, you know,
27:16I can share, next time we develop another product,
27:19I can wake all those people up at 3 a.m. when Sam's torturing me,
27:23he's texting me about how much toastedness we do in this or that and the next thing.
27:28We've got a beautiful new vodka that we've been working on for the last seven months.
27:32And, yeah, that was like, you know, it's like, again, vodka,
27:37it was like relatively tasteless, flavourless, you know, pure spirit, should be easy.
27:42But, I mean, that was our biggest foe.
27:44How can you ever feel like, oh, this is a really special product if it's relatively tasteless and flavourless?
27:50And we spent months, like, we literally distilled everything, every field, every, you know, grain type.
27:58And nothing was landing.
28:00They were all really good, right?
28:02Just nothing was landing where I was like, wow, this is really special.
28:05And we ended up pushing to the brambles that, you know, draped over the dry stone dikes that surrounded the fields
28:12and the apple trees, the wild, you know, scotch apples that you see everywhere in Galloway.
28:17And we're like, you know, what if we fermented those into the mix with wheat,
28:21which gives us lovely, elegant, you know, smooth vodka?
28:26And, yeah, that was months of distillation.
28:29And now, you know, that was a tri-spirit of fermented bramble, 100% fermented bramble, apple and wheat,
28:38taken to reflux in our really modern seven-foot reflux stills, which allows much more flavour to come,
28:44but still hit those purities of 96%.
28:47And that vodka is, yeah, we're really excited to release it, and it's something very special.
28:52But I suppose, importantly, it kind of defines Scottish vodka, you know.
28:57For me, what's more Scottish, or certainly for the Galloway, than, you know, the grain in the fields,
29:02the brambles all over the dry stone dikes and the apples?
29:06You know, I suppose America's got corn and Tito's, and, you know, Poland's got their potatoes,
29:11and, you know, France's maybe got wheat with Grey Goose.
29:13But, you know, have we ever really defined a Scottish vodka?
29:18That's really the hope and aim, and it seems true of it, you know, it really does.
29:24But, again, you know, not the most economical fermenting and distilling with brambles and apples.
29:31And I'm talking about 20 times more expensive.
29:34But that's what it's all about, you know.
29:36It's all about, you know, not bringing exercises and marketing,
29:40but really special products to the market.
29:43And that's tough to do in, like, in business, you know, but that's what we stand firm on.
29:49And I suppose, ironically, you know, it's probably what people are most suspicious of,
29:54because, you know, he's famous.
29:56But actually, the polar opposite is true.
29:59And we're going much further than even, you know, a lot of distilleries that, you know, have been about for many years.
30:08So is that the nature of being this small?
30:10I know there's, like, expansion plans, but being this small and without that kind of heritage,
30:13and, you know, you can really go for something quite different.
30:17Yeah.
30:17You did it with your hills and harbour, you know, like, you've already got a well-established product.
30:20Yeah, hills and harbour are, like, 100% grain to glass, you know, exploring all five basic tastes,
30:26sweet, sour, salty, bitter umami, 18 months of development,
30:30hundreds, 200 of the general public feeding in at the final stages, you know, playing off.
30:35You know, mango shares more than the same pinnions and terpenes with juniper than any other fruit in the world.
30:41So in that case, we managed to balance juniper off against the soft and sweet mango,
30:46but still project that and honour that same traditional flavour that gin should taste of,
30:51but in an altogether more balanced outfit.
30:55And, yeah, hills and harbour is, yeah, true beauty.
30:59We're super proud of it.
31:00And, you know, when we started to share amongst people, you know,
31:04that we're changing the distillery name and things are moving forward,
31:09I've had several death threats.
31:10If that gin disappears anywhere, then I'm a dead man.
31:15So, yeah, hills and harbour will remain,
31:20and it is a beautiful product that really coins the fields, forests and shorelines of Galloway
31:24with the noble for the bladderwrack seaweed and the wheat from the fields.
31:28But it just goes altogether further with heavy respect for what gin should be,
31:33but really balancing that out and making it more vibrant by tagging all the flavour receptors and nerve endings.
31:39So it's a really special product.
31:41And, yeah, I mean, you know, the distilled cocktail,
31:47you know, the world's first distilled cocktail.
31:49It's got 600 times more botanicals than you would ever find in a gin.
31:53It should be scientifically impossible.
31:54You chuck all those ingredients in a still, and what you get is just lots of lution.
31:58A big, cloudy spring, which is not desirable on the shelf.
32:04So it took me about 18 months to figure out how to make a crystal clear liquid,
32:10but with that intensity and amount of botanicals in it.
32:13And the answer came in a flamethrower.
32:15Just like reducing down a stalk to a fine jus, I can do the same with citrus fruits
32:22by burning the outsides and blipping the essential oils, reducing the amount of oils,
32:27but up in the intensity of them.
32:29And that product has hundreds of kilograms of fresh oranges and pineapples,
32:33flamethrowers, cold smoked over whiskey chips, macerate for days and spirit put through,
32:37cider presses, and then the last act is distilled.
32:40So, you know, these are all very special products that have never, you know,
32:45that product has never even existed on the market, spirits market before.
32:49And stirred down like a Victorian-style cocktail, it's good to go.
32:54But, you know, like my mother with a very sweet tooth, a bit of lemonade in that,
32:58and it's a very pure, dangerous juice, which she's been, you know,
33:02the only thing she could get a hold of until now, having an overly sweet tooth for alcohol,
33:07is things like, you know, jam-packed full of E numbers and flavourants,
33:11like from Smirnoff Ice even through to Aperol and Campari, you know,
33:15with the Red Forties and all that.
33:16I mean, you know, it was about bringing that crystal clear purity,
33:21a sort of more grown-up premium version of flavour spirits.
33:26It's really time to get that stuff out there and tell the truth of actually what's going on here
33:32with these products because it's a very unique thing having somebody with a big reach
33:38that is actually not just licensing a name, actually doing interesting stuff
33:42and is actually going that extra mile to create really special products.
33:46It's a wonderful mix and all of them, you know,
33:49are really singing of Scotland in one way or another.
33:52So, yeah, I think we could be proud in Galloway and proud in Scotland
33:57to be really championing these spirits.
33:59Yeah, and not many of the other famous folk are buying distilleries, so...
34:03No. No, for sure.
34:06It would be an understatement to say that that guy is invested in Scotland,
34:12in Galloway, in passion for craft and spirits.
34:16He feels it super deeply.
34:19Really hard thing for people to understand, but it's very true.
34:22Thanks to everyone for being my guest on this episode
34:29and thanks to you two for listening.
34:31Please remember to rate, review and subscribe
34:32so you never miss an episode of Scran.
34:35Scran is co-produced and hosted by me,
34:36Alison Derskin, and co-produced, edited and mixed by Kelly Crichton.
34:40It's minix and 229.
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