Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
His dad, Bill, was a whisky lover and this is where his interest in spirits came from. At that point, Graham didn’t know too much about gin but continued to do his research on equipment and where to build. In Australia, Harbour and Hills Financial Services Pty Limited is registered with Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
A mixture of steep/boil and vapour infusion techniques are used and which botanicals go where (pot or basket) is one of the few closely guarded secrets in the entire process.The texture of the gin is like delicate silk – so smooth and creamy. That extra effort to make the grain spirit from scratch really does pay dividends and brings so much of Hills & Harbour’s delightful character. With tonic
To taste, this is one of the smoothest gins we’ve had. We all agreed that there was very little lingering aftertaste on the palate and definitely got what we thought was the pine needles (if you’ve ever walked in a forest in the SW of Scotland you’ll be familiar with the lovely scent). We thought they worked really well in the gin, and gave it a distinctive feel. It’s really pleasing that team and Hills & Harbour make their own base spirit too. This’ll likely be a factor in putting Hills & Harbour gin at a more premium price point, but we think it shows the care and skill that’s gone into making this quality gin. The air is crisp and green. An autumnal carpet crunches under my boots as I trek up the hill, following my guide, Crafty Distillery founder Graham Taylor, through the Galloway Forest. We’re making for a patch of noble firs from which the distillery harvests fresh cones for its award-winning Hills & Harbour Gin. Taylor explains, “It’s not a common tree in the forest, but it is one that is easy to spot, because [the cones] grow upwards rather than downwards.” Legally speaking, the ethanol is supposed to have been distilled to a minimum of 96%, which wipes out most traces of the matter from which it’s made. Still, there’s something about craft vodka that seems to betray this. At the smaller end of the scale, it always seems to carry a trace of the agricultural origin it is derived from. Be it grain, potato, sugar cane or wheat - it’ll cary through onto the final flavour and texture and no grain to glass spirit ever truly has a neutral base. Therein lies the magic of them, the added texture. When you drink a gin that has been made upon an in-house base, you almost always know straight away. There’s an undercurrent that murmurs gently beneath the surface. We, as nerds, will always prefer the added dimension it gives and love exploring how much the distiller has allow it to permeate into the end product, or neutralised it as best they can.The other six botanicals are juniper (of course!), coriander, liquorice root, angelica root, orris root, bay leaf and green Szechuan pepper. Gin Distilling In 2008, everything changed in the gin category. Up until then a long-standing British excise law meant distillers couldn’t gain a licence for a still under 1,800 litres. But thanks to a petition by Sipsmith, the law which had stood since 1823 was amended and opened the floodgates to the category as we now know it, and the birth of craft gin.
Nestled on the edge of Newton Stewart our modern Scotch Whisky & Scottish Gindistillery has been producing award-winning spirits and experience since 2017. Come and say hello, visit our shop, join a tour and enjoy panoramic views over the mighty Galloway Hills. Graham’s dad was a builder and built the distillery. The design uses many local materials and looks out onto a beautiful view of Galloway Hills. Seaweed has been adopted by a number of British gin brands to add an umami tang to their gins. However, Taylor says he and his distillery manager Craig Rankin, a trained chef with high-end restaurant experience, view its savoury salinity in another way – through the lens of salt’s flavour-enhancing effect on the tastebuds. “It is amazing to me how many gins don’t use this science,” Taylor says. “It is really important to have that savoury quality going on because it enhances the flavour of the gin … if you don’t season something, you cannot open up the palate.” Graham Taylor, founder of Crafty Distillery. Credit: Crafty Distillery
This behind-the-scenes look at its gin making exemplifies what Crafty Distillery has been about since opening in 2017: namely, craft. It is one of only around a dozen gin distilleries in Scotland and England to make its own base spirit, which is distilled from locally grown wheat. As well as gin, this spirit is used to make Crafty’s 24 Seven Vodka and the soon-to-be-released Billy & Co whisky (named after Taylor’s late father, William, who built the distillery). Inside the Crafty Distillery. Credit: Crafty Distillery As a London Dry Gin, all the botanicals are added during the distillation process with “no essences, sweeteners or nonsense added post-production.” Craig Rankin explains. It seemed pretty pointless to design the space around that glorious landscape if the views weren’t going to be shared with anyone but the distilling team, so Crafty Distillery was always designed to be a destination - something people drove out of their way to see. As such, the tasting room is expansive and inclusive – all chrome and copper on one side, trees and mountains on the other. This gin was a bit of a find…and we’re delighted we’ve found it! We can see where the hills and harbour in the names comes from; a really novel set of botanicals that make Hills & Harbour stand out.
The tour offers a strong focus on touch, smell and taste to help transport you into the wondrous journey of transforming malted barley into scotch whisky. Your expert guide will carefully explain each stage as you explore our pioneering approach. Experience how our 100% Scottish barley, unique yeast and innovative processes have elevated the possibilities of whisky flavour to create our unique new make spirit.The selected botanicals are added to the pot the night before along with the painstakingly crafted GNS. The following morning, the other botanicals are added to the vapour basket and the still is turned on. Crafty recommends a slice of fresh mango as a garnish to complement the tropical notes already present, but I found it also works well with orange and grapefruit. He was getting ahead of himself at this point, though, as he didn’t yet have a distillery, nor even the land on which to build one. Before too long, though, that was sorted. Graham’s dad, Billy, is a builder, and a pretty good one at that. He’d spotted a piece of land offering uninterrupted views of the Galloway Hills that just so happened to fit into the budget. It was theirs for the taking, so they set to work designing a distillery, making sure it was one that didn’t just respect the land, but took full advantage of it, offering gorgeous, never-ending countryside views. We see a huge future here, we want to be part of it and we urge you to also jump on this bandwagon and give them a helping hand where you can. There’s something more than just a little special about it all, that’s for certain and we hope they can continue to grow and evolve to be an established player in the UK industry.
Great Deal 
New Comment