Caorunn Raspberry Gin, 50 cl

Product Information

Our Caorunn Gin review unearths a pure, fresh gin from Speyside in Scotland that loves to be served with a slice of crisp red apple. Staying true to our existing process means that Caorunn Scottish Raspberry combines the invigorating dry, crisp taste of Caorunn yet is enhanced by a natural raspberry sweetness. Why it's #NotPink Barra natives, Michael and Katie Morrison founded Isle of Barra Distillers in 2017. Originally contract distilled, the husband and wife team realised their dream of bringing distilling to their remote and beautiful island home in 2019.

With their bespoke bottle launching in the summer of 2020, The Pentland Still Distillery made a significant investment in their brand. For a small distillery, it shouldn’t go understated. The Caorunn brand is owned by International Beverage Holdings, so the good news is that it’s widely distributed and available. Disclosure: free sample bottle previously provided to Nic’s Gin & Beer and From the Gin Shelf for review. The results are highly regarded as they are independently audited by a panel of experts and judged live in a rigorously assessed blind tasting event. There is no BS here and with that I would opt for a no BS Negroni that puts a big cheeky grin on my face!”Taking inspiration from Norse mythology, Hrafn Gin is the brainchild of two brothers – Callum and Peter Sim. The award-winning Valhall Gin is their ultra-premium expression and the higher strength sibbling to Thought & Memory – both of which have beautiful sweet mandarin as their signature botanical. Verdant Dry Gin is distilled in a 500 litre iStill called Little Eddie using botanicals including lemon peel, bitter orange, grains of paradise and liquorice. Distilled in Leith, the Edinburgh port has a long history with gin. Achroous uses botanicals such as liquorice, fennel seed and Sichuan. With some experimentation we soon discovered that Caorunn’s distinctive aromatic flavour, created by infusing five locally foraged Celtic botanicals and six traditional gin botanicals in the world's only working Copper Berry Chamber, is perfectly complemented by the addition of sumptuous Perthshire raspberries to our infusion process.

Created by James Porteous, Achroous Gin has built a strong reputation as an exceptional Scottish Gin, culminating in winning double gold at the prestigious San Fransisco World Spirits Competition. Launched in 2017, Hills & Harbour is distilled in the southwest Scotland, and is one of the few grain to glass distilleries in the country – meaning they make their own base spirit from scratch. Here in the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands we’re surroundedby some of the finest natural scenery on earth, in fact it's hard to beat the views around Balmenach Distillery. But its not just the surroundings that make our home a rather incredible place, the Scottish landscape is also rich in extraordinary natural resources. So, with our 10-year anniversary on the horizon and an ambition to bring something new to our collection, we didn’t have to look far. Based in Aberdeenshire, Little Brown Dog Spirits was founded by Andrew Smith and Chris Reid. Their flagship gin, LBD, is a newcomer to the Scottish gin scene, launching in May 2020. You can tell immediately that this is a well-crafted gin when opening the bottle for the first time. Nothing overpowers, nothing jolts. It smells like a quality gin. The batch size is small, at just 1,000 litres. The neutral spirit has vapourised through a Copper Berry Chamber containing the botanicals. This chamber looks a little like a round beehive, with trays of these botanicals ready to gently impart their aromas.

Tobermory Hebridean Gin

As with many of the gins on our list, it uses a mix of foraged and bought-in botanicals. But unlike of the Scottish gins we’ve mentioned here, it features parsnip in the mix! Other notable botanicals inlude wood sorrel, rhubarb and birch sap. The juniper is beautifully balanced, and lingers purposefully behind those bold red fruits, with suggestions of a rich and warming sweet spice. It works brilliantly as a G&T, with a fresh raspberry garnish. The tonic pulls forward a little more sweetness, whilst maintaining the strong raspberry flavour, putting a delicate and floral touch on a classic. While the original Caorunn Gin is one of Scotland’s best known and loved gins, it’s the recently launched Caorunn Raspberry that The Gin Shelf has selected as one of his top Scottish gins. Now ten years old, Caorunn comes to us from Balmenach Distillery near Cromdale (and Grantown-on-Spey), deep in Speyside whisky country. It’s a clear gin in a clear bottle, and is bottled at 41.8% ABV.

Like Valhalla, Thought & Memory is multi-award-winning, with gold medals at the International Gin Masters (2018 and 2020) and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. We’re incredibly proud to be introducing our very first flavoured gin just ahead of our 10-year anniversary of Caorunn gin, here at Balmenach Distillery. Caorunn Scottish Raspberry leverages the same trusted process that has made Caorunn gin such a success over the last decade. This process, paired with the unique infusion of Perthshire raspberries has allowed us to create a bright, clean and fruity gin that we’re incredibly proud to be adding to our range.”Simon Buley, Gin Master How to enjoy it The name Caorunn (helpfully highlighted as being pronounced ‘Ka-roon’ on the bottle) is the Gaelic for rowan berry. It’s not Carunn Gin, Caroon Gin or any other alternative, but please forgive us if we do spell it incorrectly elsewhere. It’s also quite entertaining in predictive text; we had Captain Gin and Carine Gin in this article until it was proof-read… Almost 200 gins - all distilled in Scotland - were blind tasted this year and medals awarded in 11 categories.

Story.

If you think of a gin that has the smell of a malting floor and added juniper, this is Tobermory. Since I’m a whisky drinker, this is right up my street and Tobermory makes an absolutely excellent Martinez and Negroni that sort of become very Rob Roy and Boulevardier-like due to the whisky notes coming through.”