 What did you do before creating your distillery and Pentland Hills Gin? Phil is a retired RAF veteran and was the CEO of Scotland’s oldest military charity, and Tabatha was running her own HR consultancy. It would be fair to say that we had to learn a lot and quite quickly! What made you decide to create your gin? A desire to work for ourselves and utilise the land we have around us at home. We wanted to create a flavour that we and our friends and family loved before offering the gin to customers. With the gin good to go it’s delivery brought a number of challenges especially around the ability to make the bottle reusable and refillable, but this was key to us achieving both sustainability and a circular economy at the heart of how we create and deliver Pentland Hills Gin. Can you tell us more about Panza who stars on your gin bottle? Our lives are focused around our life in the countryside with our dogs, cats and occasional sheep. Indeed, our Chief Executive is Panza our 2 year old Chocolate Labrador. Panza is certainly our poster boy and a great mascot at events, but he’s also a real member of ‘Team Pentland’ – woof!! He had a turbulent entry to the world and we almost lost him when he was 7 weeks old. He is now almost 2 years old and is just a great bundle of fun that makes us smile every day and is very nosy!  Can you tell us more about the distillery?
The distillery is within the grounds of our home and is a converted stable block. We are based in the rolling Pentland Hills in South Lanarkshire. Distillation is undertaken (currently) in a 30 litre copper pot still called Douglas. A new 60 litre still called Amy is just about to be commissioned Can you tell us more about the botanicals? The gin is based on 9 botanicals, some of which we can grow and create on site and we are currently establishing juniper on our land. We are hoping in 2020 to start using our own volcanic water source which rises on our land. What have been the biggest challenges and achievements so far? Establishing our refill service. We have worked hard to create a process from end to end that enables refilling and sustainability at the heart of our production lifecycle. We also had to work quite hard with HMRC and South Lanarkshire Council to ensure that the service we provide was approved. This is now our biggest achievement as it has proven very popular with our customers and helps us to play our part in trying to look after the planet but also enjoy gin at the same time How would you describe Pentland Hills Gin in 3 words? Refreshing, citrusy, smooth What's your favourite way to drink your gin? As a perfect serve with pink grapefruit, a bit of muddled mint and a simple tonic. A martini is just as brilliant. What gins would you always have on your gin shelf (other than your own of course!)? Isle of Harris Gin and Monkey 47 Gin. What's next for Pentland Hills Gin - any exciting plans? Commissioning our big still (aka The Red Barron!), investigating the possibility of a distillery shop onsite, expanding our Juniper tree planting and getting our own volcanic water well up and running. We'll also be expanding our Personalised Gin Service including bespoke gin crafting, individual bottle etching and wedding services. Find out more about Pentland Hills Gin with our Reviews & Tasting Notes: Comments are closed.
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