A few words from Fidra Gin
Emma in Dubai
Emma Bouglet of Fidra Gin writes…
Food and drink have always been an important part of my life. I grew up abroad in Dubai and Singapore in the ex-pat movement of the late 70s and 80s. I had an early love of the fish and spice markets and loved all the different cuisines available at that time and the ambiances of all the different restaurants. I loved it!
I moved to Scotland from London in 2002 and have never looked back. What struck me most about this beautiful country was the abundance of fantastic produce on our doorstep! Scottish lamb is so tender and succulent and the langoustines!! I also could not believe the number of amazing restaurants in Edinburgh! To say I was blown away was an understatement. My move to Scotland also coincided with meeting my now husband Richard at an England versus Scotland match in Edinburgh.
Richard is French and was born and raised in Paris and has lived in Scotland for over 25 years. He has a love of exceptionally good food and wine. Richard’s parents are originally from farming families within the Sarthe area of France and my mother-in-law really is the most amazing cook. They grow most of their own vegetables and fruits and have a small holding of chickens, rabbits and pigeons that always provide a beautiful French family lunch or dinner. This way of living appeals to our family greatly and we have taught our three children the joys of foraging and where our food comes from. We often have family trips searching for chanterelles or ceps and the children enjoy cooking with them in family meals. One of our family of five’s first restaurant trips was to l’escargot bleu, being looked after by Fred and Betty.
Richard and I moved to East Lothian in 2007, when our daughter Eloise was born. This also coincided with Richard setting up a wine business with his friend and co-owner Philippe Larue. At l’Art du Vin they are passionate about wines made by artisan producers that express their terroir. Their bespoke portfolio focusses on wines while remaining true to environmental issues. They stock a wide range of biodynamic wines and organic wines alongside their very own range of micro Fair Trade wines, and they take great pride in being the first Scottish wine merchant to be a certified member of the Soil Association.
In 2017, Jo Brydie, my friend and neighbour and I decided to create a Scottish coastal gin inspired by the stunning East Lothian coastline and landscape that surrounds us. We decided to only use botanicals that we could sustainably pick or grow. The main botanicals aside from juniper are rosehip, sea buckthorn, elderflower, thyme and lemon thyme as we wanted to create a delicious, locally foraged dry gin. We perfected our recipe on a tiny 5-litre still called Sadie and Fidra Gin was officially launched in September 2018. Our gin is currently made at Inshriach Distillery in Aviemore by Walter Micklethwait. We sat next to Walter at the Scottish Gin Awards in 2017 and after chatting for the evening, Walter thought he could help us out while we were still finding our feet in the Scottish gin world. We loved Walter’s very own Inshriach Gin and his ethos behind it of using botanicals from the estate and made in his amazing shed distillery which won George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year 2015. We have just purchased our very own bottling machine so soon we will be bottled in East Lothian and are still saving up to buy our own still at some point!
Fidra Gin is named after the tiny but beautiful island of Fidra, just off the coast of North Berwick. The gin is strongly influenced by its surroundings. Fidra’s iconic lighthouse was built by the father and uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson and the writer spent several summers in North Berwick as a young boy. It is widely thought that Treasure Island, from Stevenson’s best known book, was modelled on Fidra itself. This fact, coupled with tales of gin smuggling by Dutch boats, that would wind their way between Fidra and Craigleith islands before dropping their cargo for local boats to slip out and collect, intrigued us so much we knew we had found our name! We have noticed that people are generally very interested in the story behind our gin, and feel that this really helps capture the imagination of our wonderful customers.
Since our journey began, we came 5th out of 45 gins and received a highly commended award at the Scottish Gin Awards 2019, won a Bronze award at the London Spirits Competition as well as a Silver design award from Harper’s Design Award 2019. I was also very honoured and privileged to have been included in the Top 100 Women in Tourism 2020! We also have lots of plans afoot for 2021, so watch this space!
We love being a part of Scotland’s food and drink scene and being able to have a Fidra Gin and tonic served in many restaurants within Edinburgh and the Lothians! Especially when we head to l’escargot bleu for a cosy weekend dinner! We have been friends with Fred and Betty for most of my time living in Scotland and they have been our lockdown food saviours for sure!
Visit Fidra’s website here.