Holyrood Distillery: A ‘rude’ reawakening in the courtyard

Holyrood Distillery has created a ‘sipping gin’ that’s ideal for its reopened courtyard, as Peter Ranscombe discovers.

IN A world with more and more gin, it’s becoming harder and harder to find anything that stands out from the crowd.

Yet Holyrood Distillery may have just cracked it.

The Edinburgh whisky maker set out to create a “sipping gin” that built on its experience with the amber nectar.

It wanted a gin that would be “smooth but dirty”, capturing that earthiness we find in our national drink.

And its new HolyXXXX Gin has done just that.

Bringing together sea salt and honey with more-traditional pine, corriander seed, and angelica notes has created a distinctive gin.

I really enjoyed the savouriness to the salty flavours, which complimented the juniper.

And it needed to be distinctive to make an impression on a wet May evening.

Yet it was worth the inclement weather to sit in Holyrood Distillery’s newly-reopened courtyard bar.

The distillery has teamed up with breweries including Barney’s, Crossborders, and Pilot to serve draught beers – oh draft, how we’ve missed thee, let us count the ways – along with gin from Electric Spirit Co and Port of Leith, and whiskies from Kilchoman and Nc’Nean.

The Big Mac has met its match

Yet perhaps the most exciting link-up is with catering company Hickory, which is providing the grub in the courtyard.

And what grub it is too.

The Hickory sandwich might be two burgers inside a bun sliced in three, yet that’s where any comparison with a Big Mac ends.

Flavour, texture, smell – it’s got the whole package.

Especially when paired with the crispest outside catering chips I’ve ever tasted, with curled sides creating a tube-like shape that’s ideal to soak up some parmesan cheese and truffle mayonnaise.

I’ve loved watching Holyrood Distillery develop over the years and it’s exciting to see where it goes next with its “rude” gin.

Read more of Peter’s spirits, beer, and wine reviews on his drinks blog, The Grape & The Grain.