ESTABLISHED in 2016, Avva Scottish Gin has quickly gained international recognition, picking up medals from Gold to Bronze in the highly-acclaimed International Wine & Spirits Competition for for all of its distilled gins.

Based in Elgin, distiller and director Jill Brown took advantage of Speyside’s rich distilling heritage and commissioned Speyside Copper Works to create a bespoke copper still. Called the 250l, it is the first Scottish-made gin still in the UK and has been named Jessie Jean after the distiller’s grandmothers.  

The Forgotten Cask & Tasting Tours

In early 2020, the team at Avva had been focused on preparing the distillery to open for tasting tours that spring but like so many businesses were heavily impacted by the pandemic.  Jill quickly switched to assisting the community by producing hand sanitiser then was able to get back to refurbishing the distillery.

Changes in the Covid rules and the tiny space really impacted on what could be carried out in last year. It was during this time that “The Forgotten Cask” was discovered. “We’d put it down in February 2019 and simply forgot about it,” Jill explains.

 “It was almost like déjà vu when went into 2021 with lockdown,” says Jill. “We were still working on getting the site ready for tasting tours in a new format and this resulted in the 2019 cask being forgotten about.”

Sitting for 30 months in a Bourbon cask means that the gin has matured for much longer and has an incredibly smooth taste. “I don’t know of any other Scottish gin that has gone through that length of maturation,” says Jill. “The aroma and palate are sensational.

“This is an incredibly special, rare gin as the majority of cask-matured gins are matured for weeks rather than years.”

A limited number of 70cl bottles is available, all of them hand bottled and individually numbered with tasting notes from some of Speyside’s most respected whisky stalwarts included. Each bottle will be presented in a branded wooden case with pre-release announced in mid-November. This is definitely a gin not to miss.
www.avvascottishgin.co.uk