THE GIN PASSPORT ATLAS - DISTILLERY STORY- PINNED ON THE MAP - UK/ EUROPE
FORGET ME NOT GIN, Scotland
Caitríona Balfe may be best known around the world as Claire Fraser in Outlander, so there was always going to be a little bit of television magic attached to anything she put into a bottle. Forget Me Not Gin appeared in 2020, right in the middle of lockdown, and the name was never going to pass unnoticed by Outlander fans. The tiny blue flower has its own place in the show's mythology, linked to the mysterious stones at Craigh na Dun, so there is an immediate connection between the gin, Scotland and one of television's most successful time-travelling romances.
The name wasn't simply chosen because it sounded pretty either. The forget-me-not has long carried associations with remembrance and not being forgotten, which seems particularly fitting for a gin launched at a time when the creative industries were suddenly facing a very uncertain future. Balfe used the project to support the arts, with profits from the gin helping fund creative programmes and emerging artists rather than simply adding another celebrity bottle to an already crowded shelf.
The gin was created with The Garden Shed Drinks Company and produced at Strathearn Distillery in Perthshire. That gives us a rather more interesting production story than the original launch coverage suggested, when the distillery wasn't publicly identified. Strathearn, tucked away in the Perthshire countryside, is one of Scotland's small independent distilleries, and its involvement puts Forget Me Not firmly in the Scottish craft-distilling story rather than leaving it as a celebrity-branded spirit made somewhere anonymous.
The botanical recipe is also rather more adventurous than the name might suggest. Alongside juniper are coriander seed, liquorice root, angelica, rosehip, elderflower, lavender and orange peel, with beetroot and coconut joining the party. Beetroot and coconut are not necessarily the first things you would expect to find lurking in a Scottish gin, which makes the recipe worth a second look. Earlier descriptions also highlighted the forget-me-not flower itself, although the current botanical information doesn't list it among the ingredients.
There is another little Outlander thread running through the story.
Balfe's connection to Scotland was obviously amplified by the series, but Forget Me Not arrived at a time when the show had made Scottish landscapes, folklore and history part of the entertainment world's vocabulary. The bottle could therefore appeal to someone who had never heard of Strathearn or Scottish craft gin but knew exactly who Claire Fraser was. That's quite a marketing shortcut, and one that didn't require putting the actress's face on the label.
The timing of the launch is important too. In 2020, theatres were dark, productions had stopped and musicians, actors, artists and designers were suddenly finding themselves without work.
Forget Me Not was launched with that creative community in mind, supporting projects including the SWG3 Graduate Programme in Glasgow, which gives emerging artists and designers space and support at the Glasgow creative hub. It meant the gin had a purpose beyond the celebrity name attached to it.
For anyone who discovered Scotland through Outlander, there is something rather fitting about a bottle inspired by the series ending up with its own little piece of Scottish distilling history. I won't say any more about where the story takes Claire and Jamie — no spoilers here — although if you've watched it, you'll know that remembering the past is rather important.
"From Outlander to Scotland, a gin that gives something back."
Show me a bottle and
I'll tell you a story.
