Gintelligence

Gin with a lot of zing!

Lussa Gin: Isle of Jura 42 per cent ABV £40 for 70cl

There’s remote and then there’s really remote, and the Lussa Gin distillery certainly falls into the latter category.

For those who know little about the Isle of Jura, where it is based, it is famously an island of some 200 souls and 6,000 deer.

It is also home to two distilleries, an otherworldly mountainscape, abundant flora and fauna, untamed moors, turbulent seas and a very, very long single-track road.

More than 30 miles along this single track road, which starts at Feolin on the island’s west side before meandering to the south of the island and three quarters of the way up the east, is Ardlussa – home to Lussa Gin.

This farming estate lends one of its stables to Hamish, the distillery’s 100 litre copper still and the surrounding area is a playground for the gin’s rich selection of botanicals. From elderflowers to Scots pine, bog myrtle to water mint, sea lettuce to wild roses – it is an enviable collection of homespun ingredients, which many-a gin maker would give their eye-teeth for, as the saying goes.

Back in 2016, Georgina Kitching, Alicia MacInnes and Claire Fletcher stuck a poster up at the shop in the island’s main village of Craighouse. It asked whether locals were Ginspired and invited them to a tasting of this brand new, unnamed spirit. This was the culmination of a chat the three women had had in the summer of 2015 about the possibility of distilling a gin, the various trials and errors, and finally being in a position to go ‘live’, so to speak.

Evidently it was a success and the first bottle of Lussa Gin, complete with its own ‘scarf’ of Ardlussa tweed, produced by Islay Woollen Mill, was born. The spirit takes its name from the Lussa River which carves through the estate.

This gin positively zings and sings – I should have better words for it, but these serve the purpose well enough.

On the nose, it is like a breath of summer air beside the sea – you can almost hear bees buzzing, waves lapping and birds tweeting, with a rich mix of fruity and floral tones overlaid with maritime ozone and a hint of vanilla. So much so, that all you really want to do is dive in.

In the mouth, there’s a calming explosion of flavour – a citrusy twang around the cheeks, is matched by smooth floral viscosity on the tongue; the prominent juniper is there, and it’s mixed with berries and a mildly herby aftertaste. And through some kind of magical intervention, it finishes off leaving an almost ice cream like finish in your mouth. Weird, I know – but that’s how it seemed to me.

With Fever Tree’s naturally light tonic added and a sliver of lime, this was splendidly refreshing – but it just didn’t feel quite right; so I fished out the lime and it was absolutely the right move.

Georgina Kitching, Alicia MacInnes and Claire Fletcher

This gin does not really need a garnish – it has so many of its own defined and delicious flavours going on that to mask them with anything else just seems downright wrong.

You’ve got a fresh whirr from the Scots pine and the juniper, a positive bouquet of loveliness from elderflowers, rosehips and rose petals, as well as the cleansing hits of citrusy lemon thyme and subtle water mint.

It is like some kind of alchemy, made from copper, elbow grease and a sack full of greenery.

So, yes, I did like it and, yes, I would recommend it – it needs only a neutral tonic, one part spirit to one part mixer, and some ice. Some lovely warm spring weather to chill out in the garden while you sip your lovingly created cocktail would be nice, too; but we can’t have everything.