Summerhall Distillery
Summerhall Place, Edinburgh
Who are they? It's billed as "Edinburgh’s first exclusive gin distillery in over 150 years", and Pickerings Gin was first passed through the stills here in 2013 in the capital's cool and creative hub that is the Summerhall arts venue. Pickering's is the brainchild of friends and business partners Marcus Pickering and Matthew Gammell, who had been making sloe and blackberry gins for their personal consumption for a number of years. While working as a senior butler at Skibo Castle, Pickering found himself mixing cocktails and taking local distillery tours. Gammell had a background in construction, and they soon went to work in creating their vision by converting the old animal hospital dog kennels on the Summerhall site into a fully operational distillery. Their ethos is: “If you can’t find what you want, make it yourself.” This has inspired them to create a award-winning gin which is flying out of the Summerhall.
Interesting fact: The Summerhall became a multi-arts complex and events venue in 2012 and in the UK only London's Barbican Centre and Birmingham's mac (Midlands Art Centre) are bigger. Formerly home to the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh, it is now one of the major venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each year with a programme of about 200 productions.
The location: The idea of a Scottish distillery evokes images of tranquil scenery and historic buildings in a remote location. Here, you get the historic building but slap bang in the middle of the city with a new and fun experience which is sometimes lacking in some of Scotland's distilleries.
The product: Pickering’s offer three different gins to buy: the staple Pickering’s Gin, the powerful Navy Strength Gin, which is bottled at 57.1 per cent ABV for more punch and the Original 1947 Gin, which they say is "made precisely to our original recipe, as it was written down in Mount Mary, Bombay, in 1947". There are nine botanicals in each edition of Pickering’s: juniper, coriander, cardamom, angelica (or cinnamon in the 1947 gin), fennel, anise, lemon, lime and cloves. They are then added to the grain spirit in one of their 500-litre copper stills, which have apparently been named Gert and Emily, "after the founders’ maternal great-grandmothers". The producers recommend mixing Pickering’s with tonic and a slice of pink grapefruit.
My favourite: I’ve been lucky enough to try their limited edition Oak Aged Gin, which has been aged in ex-Scotch whisky casks for a period of time, with five different versions to try. If you can’t get your hands on this then go for the regular Pickering's Gin with tonic and a slice of pink grapefruit, which you will find in any of Scotland’s top bars.
Why visit: This is a great gin tour, and you don’t have to travel three hours into the Highlands to get the experience of a distillery. Gin tours are available Monday-Friday at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm and Saturday and Sunday at 1pm, 2:30pm, 4pm and 6pm. Tours cost £10 per head and last around 45-50. For that tenner you experience how hand-crafted, small batch gin is made, visit the botanicals room, the stills and bottling line. Then at the end, you can sample all three Pickering’s gin expressions and enjoy a Pickering’s and tonic from the gin tap at The Royal Dick bar. To organise a tour, visit www.pickeringsgin.com/tours-tastings.
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