The UK’s small batch, artisanal gin boom has now been commemorated by the UK’s first limited edition, letter-box friendly gin.
Daffy’s Gin, based at the Strathmashie Distillery in Perthshire, has just launched its unique Christmas greetings cards which contain a 5cl miniature bottle of slow-cooked, award-winning Mother’s Ruin. The cards can be personalised.
The artwork is by Robert McGinnis, creator of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and James Bond poster in the 1960s and 1970s.
“It’s the ideal card for gin lovers and Secret Santa,” says MD and distiller Chris Molyneaux who, after being a winemaker in France, studied distilling all kinds of drinks all over the world before setting up his 500-litre Robert still in a former Victorian shooting lodge in the Cairngorm National Park.
“Prince Albert is meant to have danced on top of one of our tasting room tables when he and Queen Victoria visited the estate in 1847. He must have been a bit Daffy. That was the Victorian word for gin. And the effects it could have.”
Scotland now has over 50 micro-distilleries and has just launched a nationwide Gin Trail. Seventy per cent of the UK’s gin is now made north of the border. Many offer ‘Distil Your Own Experiences’.
Molyneaux, with his New York-born wife Mignonne, runs Scotland’s only gin day boarding school. Residents can learn the art of gin making and forage for their key botanicals by paddleboard around Loch Laggan and the river Spey. Accommodation comprises the Butler’s Flat and the distillery cottage which sleeps eight. Day pupils are allowed. There is no entry exam. Although students must be over 18. Extramural activities include table tennis and sauna.
“We started out in 2009 based in Edinburgh and distilling on an ancient Scottish whisky still. We moved to the geographical centre of Scotland overlooked by an ancient Pictish Fort Dun-da Lamh, which is over 2,000 years old.” The only non-local ingredient is Lebanese mint grown on Mignonne’s father’s vineyard in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
Molyneaux adds: “Apart from that we are Scotland in a bottle. And in the post too.”
£44.94 for a pack of six cards
www.daffysgin.com