Edinburgh Distillers

Edinburgh Distillers was set up in 2018 at Expo House on the Macmerry Industrial Estate near Tranent, as a sister operation to Edinburgh Preserves, a preserve maker established in 1995 and run from the same East Lothian site. The distillery makes gin in small batches, with Red Admiral, a 43% London Dry style, as its flagship, joined by a sloe gin and a bramble whisky liqueur; each batch is distilled, bottled and labelled by hand on the premises by head distiller Bob and the team. The spirits are named after butterflies as a nod to the naturalist John Muir, the East Lothian-born founder of the modern conservation movement, and the company pledges one percent of online sales profits to conservation charities. Production stays entirely in-house rather than being contracted out, and bottles are sold direct and through independent stockists across Scotland.