Wild Thyme Spirits Colonsay Gin

​ In August 2016, husband and wife team Finlay and Eileen Geekie left behind the rat race and moved to their new, self-build house, starting a new life on the isolated Hebridean island of Colonsay. 

Whilst this sounds like the typical opening to an episode of Grand Designs the reason I’m writing this is because they took their love of gin with them and founded the Wild Thyme Spirits distillery.

Colonsay Gin is a small batch, hand-made, premium Scottish Gin, made traditionally in the classic London dry style. The botanicals, which include Juniper, Angelica Root, Calamus Root, Coriander (and a few more secret ingredients) are macerated in their 100 litre still in a neutral grain spirit and water for 30 minutes. Once the botanicals have had their bath time the real work of distillation begins, using a slow distillation process, which takes around 6 hours to complete. The spirit is then placed in a holding tank for 4 or 5 days to allow it to mellow out and blend all the distillate. The finished product sits at a potent 47% ABV (this is clearly not a gin to be taken lightly) and is left to rest for 24 hours before bottling. The slightly stronger bottling is designed to accentuate the full flavour of the botanicals that are used to produce the premium quality gin.

​Gin isn’t the only spirit to inhabit the island of Colonsay though. In Celtic folklore every house has a Brownie or Spirit (an Uruisg in Gaelic) to help with household chores, like making gin of course. There are rumoured to be two such sprites at Wild Thyme Spirits, the twins Doughal and Ferghus. 

The Beautiful Alva

They help Alva, a very special Brownie, whose likeness adorns the strikingly designed Colonsay Gin bottle. The decidedly Tolkienesque design can be credited to Caroline Vos, an illustrator from South Africa.
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Mythology and fun marketing aside, it’s probably not uncommon to see Brownies after drinking a few glasses of 47% ABV gin, it certainly gets you into the spirit of things.

​The gin has already made an impact on the market, winning 2017 New York International Spirits Competition Silver Medal and the Global Gin Masters Silver Medal, which brings me onto the most important part – how does it taste?

SilverFox Tasting Notes
Like walking hand in hand with Alva along the breezy beach of Colonsay island, a warm kiss from the Juniper lips of Alva is both strong and silky smooth. The fresh sea breeze brings  earthy notes from the pine trees of the island and gently refreshes your faces with cool sea spray.​

Colonsay Gin Tasting Notes
Nose: Strong and Juniper lead
Palate: Oily Juniper with hints of earthiness 
Finish: Sweet citrus
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Average Price: £32.08
Fox’s Rating: 7/10

The strength of the gin makes it it a good choice for cocktails and mixed drinks, though the earthiness might not work so well in some sweeter cocktails. As a classic G&T it is strikingly refreshing, but also deceptively strong - it can catch up with you. Due to it's small batch nature it is  a rather pricey bottle of gin to buy at £32.08 for a 50cl bottle (which at the time of writing is the largest available) compared to the industry standard 70cl, but if you are a fan of strong, earthy gin then this is certainly worth adding to your collection, just beware of the Brownies coming to visit.

Colonsay Gin is available to buy here.
It's also worth noting that a Gin Lover's Retreat stay can be booked on Colonsay Island for those who really want to get the full experience.

The SilverFox