Botanist Planter Gift Pack 40% 700ml

As if The Botanist wasn’t already a herbal masterpiece, those clever folk on Islay have now created a matching Herb Planter so that you can grow your own botanicals. Never be short of a garnish for a G&T again.

This beautiful Gift Pack includes a bottle of their spectacular gin and a self-watering herb planter (modelled on their iconic bottle) that allows you to “Be The Botanist”. All you’ll need are some seeds and some soil, or maybe a pre-potted herb plant. What will you grow?

Maybe you can take inspiration from the gin itself, which is a veritable one-way ticket to Islay. Produced on the Hebridean island by whisky legends Bruichladdich Distillery, it was created using 31 different botanicals in total, of which 22 are hand-foraged berries, barks, seeds and peels plucked from the island. In alphabetical order, these 22 are apple mint, bog myrtle, chamomile, creeping thistle, downy birch, elder, gorse, hawthorn, heather, juniper, lady’s bedstraw, lemon balm, meadowsweet, mugwort, red clover, spearmint, sweet cicely, tansy, water mint, white clover, wild thyme and wood sage.

Slowly distilled in a pot-still called ‘Ugly Betty’, which has been described as looking like “an oversized, upside-down dustbin made of copper”, the gin buzzes with energy like an overhead power cable. Bruichladdich has captured the essence of the island’s woods, meadows, hills and coastline in this startlingly complex and regional gin. Smooth, mellow and pure, The Botanist’s notes of menthol, wildflowers, honey, citrus, coconut and pine give it a really outdoorsy feel. Each sip is like exploring the island. It makes a great gin and tonic, but we also rather enjoy making a Martini with it by rinsing the glass with a little smoky Islay whisky instead of vermouth and then adding just the tiniest pinch of sea salt.