Edinburgh Gin 1670 celebrates Royal Botanic Garden

Edinburgh Gin has teamed up with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to create a limited-edition bottling made with “rare and exotic” botanicals from the historic gardens.

Edinburgh Gin head distiller David Wilkinson (right) and botanist Dr Greg Kenicer (left)

A total of 12,000 bottles of Edinburgh Gin 1670 (43% abv) have been produced, available from John Lewis stores throughout the UK, as well as specialist retailers, at an RRP of £40 (US$56) per bottle.

Edinburgh Gin head distiller David Wilkinson worked with botanist Dr Greg Kenicer for more than 12 months to curate the expression, which is named in homage to the year that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was founded as a physic garden.

The gin is made with 14 plants – six of which were picked from the gardens. However, due to the quantity needed to make the gin additional amounts were sourced from elsewhere.

The botanicals include piper leaf, tasmannia lanceolata leaf and Tasmanian mountain pepper.

David Wilkinson, Edinburgh Gin head distiller, said: “Having a world centre of excellence for botany on our doorstep made for a great natural partnership that enabled us to experiment with a range of handpicked botanicals to create an enticingly aromatic gin with lively herbaceous – almost floral – notes with added peppery spice.”

In February, the Ian Macleod Distillers-owned gin added a pomegranate and rose variant to its liqueurs range.