Our aim at Hidden Edinburgh is to uncover the best the city has to offer and when it comes to drinks Pickerings Gin is right up there. An award winning handcrafted gin distilled right in the heart of Edinburgh – find out more about why it’s so special.
So we know about Pickerings Gin, we love the stuff, but tell our readers a bit more about how it all started?
Pickering’s Gin started back in 2013 when friends and business partners Marcus (Pickering) and Matt (Gammell) decided that their gin and tonic drinking was getting rather expensive. Using an old Indian Gin recipe bequeathed by a close friend of Marcus’ late father, Marcus and Matt started experimenting at home, researching distillation and toying with the idea of opening a distillery in the centre of Edinburgh. When the space became available in Summerhall, they decided to turn their hobby into a business. Motivated by desire to create a gin that was strong enough in character and flavour in a single measure gin and tonic, they adapted the Indian recipe into Pickering’s Gin, our brand-leading product. Fast forward to 2a014, batch one of the product sold out almost instantly. From then, what was a sideline to their building company became a thriving distillery, now steadily moving towards batch 100.
What makes Pickerings Gin so special and different from other gins?
All Pickering’s Gins are hand made in tiny batches; while these terms are a bit overused and nowadays can be seen as just advertising buzzwords, at Summerhall Distillery every part of our process and the facility itself is entirely built and the gin produced by us and us alone. Our Distillery Manager is as likely to be found tinkering around building an addition to the distillery as he is with botanicals or on the bottling line.
Every part of our process is not automated and our tiny batches of less than 700 bottles each time allow us to ensure the full flavour and high quality of every single bottle. There is so much we do that it would be a double page article in itself!! Needless to say we’re pleased and proud of every part of our process, and we hope that this dedication to quality and craftsmanship comes across.
You are based up in Summerhall in quite a unique space, tell us more about that?
Summerhall was, until 2010, Edinburgh University’s Veterinary School, nicknamed the Dick Vet by locals (after William Dick who bequeathed the building). Marcus and Matt, in their guise as master builders with Broughton Building, were tasked with refurbishing all the old classrooms, labs and operating theatres and making them fit for their new purpose of housing emerging artists, tech startups and theatre companies.
Through this work the guys had an intimate knowledge of the entire site, over 600 rooms in total, and so knew exactly what they wanted when they needed somewhere to build a distillery. They settled on the old dog kennels in the former small animal hospital where we still keep the original dog runs and we bond our gin in some of the original kennels.
It’s an exciting place to be, and we often collaborate the businesses on site- including: printers, fruit and ice merchants, photographers and, of course, the Royal Dick pub next door. There’s even an escape game, LockedIn who have a Pickering’s-themed room upstairs with the tagline “save the distillery and save the gin”. It’s a fantastically weird and creative space in which to be based.
People can come and visit the distillery, Tell us more about the tours on offer.
If you fancy seeing our small but perfectly formed distillery for yourself, we offer tours (including tastings and a perfectly poured P&T, naturally) several times a day, most days. They offer a peek into the history of gin as well as the chance to see how hand crafted, small batch gin is made, from botanical preparation to Pickering’s signature wax seal.
We run tours Wednesday to Sunday at 2pm 4pm and 6pm, they cost £10, last an hour and bookings can be made through pickeringsgin.com or by calling 0131 290 2901
All bottling and labelling is done by hand.
If people want to try a Pickerings Gin where in the city should they head to?
Fantastic Pickering’s cocktails can be had at Hoot the Redeemer on Hanover Street and at our very fancy Gin Terrace at the Sheraton on Festival Square. At the Sheraton you can see our Marvellously Mixed Musical Martini Maker in action- our latest invention that mixes martinis at a speed of 78rpm. Pickering’s is available at countless great bars across the city, and we’ve even installed gin taps into several establishments. These include The Royal Dick (within our home turf, Summerhall), Harry’s Bar and Beer Kitchen on Lothian Road.
Looking for a bottle of the tipple to enjoy at your leisure? If you’re around south central Edinburgh pop in to see us, we sell all of our products direct from the distillery and you might even catch the chaps hard at work on the bottling line or around the stills. Alternatively, Majestic Wine stores, a huge selection of independent bottle shops and premium department stores including Jenners and Harvey Nics.
