Spirits firm opens gin distillery in Edinburgh

The distillery and bar are based below a hotel in Edinburgh's West End

A Fife farm-based gin producer is launching a new visitor centre and distillery in Edinburgh.

Spencerfield Spirit Company, which makes Edinburgh Gin, has set up the business below the Rutland Hotel in Edinburgh's West End.

The Heads & Tales centre includes two custom-made stills which will produce gin on site.

The distillery will create eight new jobs and has been opened in partnership with Heriot-Watt University.

It will also act as the focus of Edinburgh Gin's research and development work, with several new product launches planned for the year ahead.

Spencerfield Spirits was set up by former Glenmorangie marketing director Alex Nicol and is based on the Spencerfield Farm estate in Inverkeithing.

'Special relationship'

Mr Nicol said: "Edinburgh has a special relationship with gin stretching back centuries.

"To this day, more gin is drunk here per head of the population than in any other UK city.

"With our new visitor centre and distillery coupled with the Heads & Tales gin emporium, Edinburgh's great tradition for distilling looks set to be revived."

The first dedicated distillery on the Spencerfield estate was built in 1795.

By 1860 it was producing a lowland malt whisky for the English and local markets.

In March, a gin distillery which was said to be the first in Edinburgh for more than 150 years opened its doors.

The distillery's owners, Pickering's Gin, said small batches of premium spirit would be distilled, bottled, labelled and sold in the city.