Hello, Roberto here with some thoughts on one of our favourite activities here at the distillery - Bog Myrtle picking.
Early August saw Storm Floris hit the west coast, causing all sorts of problems for businesses and locals in the area. The wind howled, trees crashed down, and the power was out for the best part of 48 hours. While our whisky production is fuelled by our biomass boiler, all of our pumps and lighting run on electricity (purchased from the grid on a renewable energy tariff). We can’t work in the dark, so for two days, production ground to a halt here at Nc’nean. This meant the team could busy themselves with a task normally reserved for sunny days when we have a few spare hands…. Bog Myrtle picking!
Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale), also known as sweet willow and Dutch myrtle, is a woody shrub which grows in the acidic, boggy soils of the west coast, and has a gorgeous, spicy scent. It’s traditionally used to ward off the dreaded midgies, but that’s not why we were picking it.
For us, it’s the main botanical we use in our Organic Botanical Spirit. Perfect for mixing with tonic or in cocktails, it’s a truly versatile spirit. While it shares some characteristics with gin, it’s not gin. But why not?
Well, there’s two key points of difference which make our Botanical Spirit unique.
First, while the base spirit of gin is a flavourless, neutral grain alcohol, our Botanical Spirit is made with our organic malted barley spirit, the very same liquid that will become our whisky after cask maturation. This gives a much fuller, more rounded mouthfeel, and provides a malty, fruity backdrop to which we’ll add our botanicals.
Second, for gin, the predominant flavour must be juniper. While we do source organic juniper for our Botanical Spirit, the primary botanical is the bog myrtle that we forage right on our doorstep. So the result is a mix of traditional gin flavours balanced by the warm and spicy aromas sourced from plants we can find around the distillery – sorrel, heather, lemon thyme, and our friend, bog myrtle.
So, back to the picking.
Four of the team put their wellies on and ventured down to the coast where the bog myrtle flourishes in the peat bogs, swaying in the salty sea air. There’s always some healthy competition among the team on foraging days: each of the picker’s harvest will be weighed, and no one wants to come back with the smallest sack.
We were looking for 8 kilos (wet weight) of bog myrtle for our next batch of Botanical Spirit, which will then be dried under our stills before sending off to Beinn an Tuirc, a sustainable distillery on the Kintyre peninsular, for redistillation with our malt spirit (we can’t put plants in our pot stills here at Nc’nean!)
Top prize this time goes to Douglas, one of our distillers, who managed to pick more than three kilos of the fragrant leaves, despite the gale force winds slowing him down.
The storm’s passed now, and we’re all back to work. The stills are back on, and spirit is flowing once again. When the sun makes an appearance, we’ll all settle down for a Botanical Spirit and tonic.