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. We began our journey to create something special for our 10-year anniversary some time ago and we were concerned with just one thing – the flavour. Here at Caorunn it’s all about flavour: natural raspberry sweetness with no messing about. So when we finalised the recipe for a crystal-clear gin that's infused with delicate raspberryflavour without the use of any additives or colours one thing was clear – our new flavoured gin was definitely not going to be pink! #NotPink 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.

That’s perhaps not surprising. Caorunn is a dry gin, and we found that, upon tasting, the juniper and more traditional botanicals deliver that long, lovely mouth-filling experience that all good dry gins possess. Interestingly, we though the pepperiness of the nose slightly faded and became more balanced with the floral notes. The overwhelming taste sensation is one of a crisp, clean, traditional gin.

Explore the range

The second expression from Raven Spirits to make it onto our list, like its sister expression, Hrafn Thought & Memory features mandarin as its signature botanical.

The Caorunn brand is owned by International Beverage Holdings, so the good news is that it’s widely distributed and available. 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. In the highly sought-after taste competition, 11 Gold Medals were presented with Edinburgh Gin collecting two gold medals. 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. Julian Vallis says:“I like Achroous because of it breaking the mould by being a ‘sessionable’ gin with an Old Tom character, despite it having no added sugar.Distilled in Leith, the Edinburgh port has a long history with gin. Achroous uses botanicals such as liquorice, fennel seed and Sichuan. These are foraged by master distiller Simon Buley from the countryside around the Highland distillery. The local ingredients are supported by 6 traditional botanicals which you’ll find in many gins, namely juniper, coriander seed, orange peel, lemon peel, angelica root and cassia bark. Distillation We tried Caorunn neat and we’re not going to advocate that. Some gins work very well neat (like these recommendations for neat gin), but it wasn’t for us – we felt it needed the tonic. 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 Scottish Gin Awards have revealed gin brands which have successfully achieved medal status in 2023, following the awards dinner in Glasgow this month.