Wild Island

Introduction:

Wild Island Distillery offers a range of gin varieties, each with its unique botanical blend. The Wild Island Botanic Gin combines six native plants, such as lemon balm, wild water mint, meadowsweet, sea buckthorn, heather flowers, and bog myrtle, along with ten other botanicals including juniper berries, coriander seeds, lemon peel, orange peel, liquorice, cinnamon bark, angelica, orris root, cassia bark, and nutmeg. Another edition, Wild Island ‘High Croft’, takes inspiration from the fertile farmland where autumn botanicals like wild blackberries, red currants, elderberries, rowanberries, apples, and rose hips are harvested. These gins, including the collaboration with Langley Distillery, known for its gin-making heritage since the early 1800s, offer distinct flavors and character.

Completing the range is Wild Island ‘Distiller’s Cut’, the first legally produced gin on Colonsay. It features redcurrants grown on the island as its primary botanical. Each bottle of Wild Island Gin showcases a label adorned with a watercolor painting depicting the colors and contours of Kiloran Bay, a picturesque location at the northern end of the island.

Production:

Wild Island Botanic Gin and Wild Island ‘High Croft’ are crafted by Langley Distillery’s Master Distiller Rob Dorsett using a traditional copper still called McKay, which has a capacity of 200 liters. McKay is one of the oldest stills in use in the UK and dates back to the 1860s. The Wild Island ‘Distiller’s Cut’ is produced on the island of Colonsay itself using a 250 liter still. Native botanicals from the island are carefully added to the still along with juniper and nine other botanicals. Once the still is closed, steam begins to circulate, slowly extracting the essential oils from the botanicals. The maceration process takes place overnight, allowing the flavors to develop and infuse into the gin.

The History:

In 2016, Colonsay Beverages introduced Wild Island Gin after brewing craft beer on the island since 2007. The Gin is produced in collaboration with Langley Distillery near Birmingham, where the distillation takes place. On Colonsay, the distillate is mixed with Scottish water and bottled, realizing Colonsay Beverages’ goal of distilling Gin on their own island. The first two bottlings of Wild Island Botanic Gin are still produced at Langley distillery, while the first Distiller’s Cut was made on Colonsay at the Wild Island distillery in 2017, marking the island’s first legal Gin in over 100 years.

Visitor information:

Wild Island Botanic Gin
Colonsay Beverages Ltd
Dunoran, Scalasaig
Isle of Colonsay
Argyll
PA61 7YZ
Tel: +44 7785 787 892
Email: info@wildislandgin.com