We make Pickering's Gin in the distillery we built ourselves, from scratch, in the heart of Edinburgh. When we opened Summerhall Distillery, it was the first exclusive gin distillery to be established in Edinburgh for over 150 years.

Believe it or not, this multi-award winning gin only came into being in 2013. As fate would have it, Marcus had recently inherited a gin recipe from a friend of his late father. Add to that our mutual penchant for a good gin, and the next step seemed obvious.

Never mind that we didn’t, strictly speaking, have a distillery. We rolled up our sleeves and built one.

Never mind that we had no background in distilling. We tried, tested and experimented until we were experts.

Never mind that everyone told us it couldn’t be done. We got on and did it.

And so began the story of the Botanical Engineers.

Pickering’s Gin is based on an original Bombay recipe, dating from 17 July 1947. Kept as a family secret for over 66 years, it only resurfaced when we began distilling at Summerhall in Edinburgh.

The original recipe gave us a gin full of fragrant spices and fresh citrus fruits – just the way they liked it in the days of the Raj. But by 2013, people were expecting a softer, smoother style of gin.

So Matt engineered a bain-marie heating system for our 500 litre copper stills (well of course he did).

This is the secret to our gin’s perfect balance. Once we have carefully prepared and measured our botanicals, we add them to the grain spirit in the stills. Here they enjoy a slow luxurious simmer, which coaxes out their subtle, soft, highly drinkable flavours.

Our award-winning Pickering's Gin is engineered from 9 botanicals: Juniper, coriander, cardamom, angelica (cinnamon in Pickering's Original 1947 edition), fennel, anise, lemon, lime, and cloves.