Dumfries & Galloway born actor Sam Heughan is sharing his love of ‘this unique part of Scotland’ with his new Sassenach Wild Scottish Gin. He tells Carol Hogarth how it was inspired by his childhood growing up in the region and why he loves celebrating his heritage. In this special souvenir feature, we also look at what saying farewell to Highlander Jamie Fraser means to Sam as the hit TV series Outlander, which made him an international star, ends.
‘Capturing Dumfries & Galloway’s wild larder”, actor Sam Heughan’s new Sassenach Wild Scottish Gin is inspired by his childhood growing up in the region.
Memories of foraging for crab apples and picking rhubarb, hikes over heather-covered hillsides and stopping for picnics, informed the creation of the gin which Sam collaborated on with Newton Stewart-based distiller Craig Rankin.
He worked with the Outlander star to create a Scottish gin that reflected the area’s “botanical garden”, incorporating botanicals which whisked Sam - who grew up near New Galloway - back to his early years.
“Our Sassenach Blended Scotch is representative of the Highlands, but I wanted the gin to represent my family home in Galloway in the south,” Sam says.
“The botanicals are all taken from my childhood - memories of growing up in rural Galloway, on the estate of a derelict castle - wild rhubarb that my mother used to bake with, crab apples and wild blackberries plucked from the bushes and eaten during the summer holidays.
“As children we’d climb the pine trees and lay in the flowering heather on the side on a Munro. The botanicals were such an exciting way to explore that connection and share my love of this unique part of Scotland. It was incredibly special to me.”
Released last summer, the gin features Scottish juniper, rhubarb, heather, Scots Pine resin, bramble leaf, blaeberry, crab apple and toasted oats, resulting in “a fresh London Dry style gin with layers of balanced, fresh flavours and a luxurious, creamy, soft mouthfeel”.
A passionate advocate for Scotland and Scottish culture, including food and drink, Sam established Sassenach Spirits in 2020 to share his love and passion for great quality spirits with great stories crafted by the world’s best craft distillers.
The award-winning Sassenach Scotch whisky was launched that year and a tequila, Sassenach Select, came out in 2021.
Announcing the gin launch on Instagram, Sam welcomed viewers to the “wilds of south west Scotland”, “specifically New Galloway, my hometown and the birthplace of the Wild Scottish Gin.”
Sam says he has always loved the creative process when it comes to the flavour profile of spirits: “What is so fun about gin is how experimental and innovative you can get with the botanicals and different flavours.
“I spent many months at home, firstly tasting over 20 different individual botanicals, until we found my favourites. Then we experimented with multiple combinations, over 12 different distillations and various processes, from freezing various fruit, tasting the leaves of the plant, and creating a resin from the Scot’s pine, until finding the final product.
“I also wanted to be sure the gin worked well with a good tonic but also stood up in cocktails, so we increased the abv to add extra strength. We set out to create a really unique, but balanced, truly Scottish gin, one personal to me, celebrating everything I love about my hometown…and I think we’ve really nailed it.”
He chose to work with Craig as “a highly skilled distiller having the same experiences as I did growing up in the same area”: “We shared our love and passion for the available Scottish produce. I told him my dream of the ideal Scottish Gin and we found the perfect balance.”
Sam also had a huge amount of personal input into the look of the final product: “The colour of the bottle and labelling was something we worked on in my kitchen, trying to find a colour that reflects the greenery and lush colour of the Scottish landscape.
“The way the light refracts through the glass reminds me of the emerald green Scottish sea on the west coast. I think it really stands out on the shelf and backbar.”
Craig describes working with Sam and Sassenach Spirits as “an inspired, amazing experience”: “Sam's goal from the outset was to create a super-premium gin that both paid homage to his home and was an innovative spirit, not just another bottle on the shelf. Therefore, was it a quick and easy development? No! Was it an inspired, amazing experience? Absolutely!
“We scoured the fields, moorlands, glens, and forests to achieve a flavour composition that really worked and was true to its homeland. Although it went way further than even I expected.
“The drive for perfection with every single ingredient, from weights, to how it was processed, to bring only the best and most vibrant projection of each flavour went deep and required some very innovative techniques.”
After 10 months of development, Craig says they then moved into what was coined the "leave no stone unturned" stage, “essentially taking what was, by that point, a really great gin, and taking it much further, to a place in the land of creativity, that not many dare to go."
Still only in its first year Sassenach Wild Scottish Gin has already received more than seven Gold awards across the top international spirits competitions as well as a Double Gold.
“We have also had amazing feedback from the mixology community,” Sam says. “The uniqueness of the botanicals used, particularly the Scottish apple and Scots Pine, have made it an exciting product for them to get creative with their cocktail experience. It feels so rewarding to have something so personal enjoyed by all. I’m really proud of this gin.
“We are planning some really exciting projects and developing further unique expressions for Sassenach Spirits, continuing to celebrate my heritage and love for this amazing wee country.”
www.sassenachspirits.com
Farewell to Jamie
Galloway-born actor Sam Heughan has been sharing his thoughts on saying a final farewell to the character who has made him an international star.
The 44-year-old who grew up in the Glenkens, has played Highlander Jamie Fraser in the hit TV series Outlander for the past 11 years and is now busy filming the final episodes.
“Eight seasons, 101 episodes, and a ton of kilts and ginger wigs. It’s been quite a journey with Jamie Fraser, and I feel honoured to have brought this story (and the best of Scotland) to the screen,” he told Dumfries & Galloway Life.
“It’ll be very hard to say goodbye but I’m ready for a new challenge.”
Season 8’s 10 episodes will continue to delve into the lives of Claire and Jamie Fraser, largely adapting Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, the ninth book in Diana Gabaldon’s historical fantasy novel series.
Meanwhile Outlander fans still have Season 7B to look forward to. It’s due to air later this year, while Season 8 may not hit screens until late 2025.
The conclusion of Season 7 sees Claire and Jamie facing challenges amid the American Revolutionary War, setting the stage for a dramatic conclusion, while the programme’s producers promise romantic entanglements, artistic pursuits, and new time travellers in the final season.
Announcing the start of filming on season 8, “the final chapter”, Executive Producer Matthew B Roberts thanked fans for their “overwhelming support” and promised them an “unforgettable conclusion to this time travelling saga”.
“We have created a family, and our legacy is going to carry on for years and years,” he said.
Highlighting the emotional impact of saying goodbye to the show which saw his career take off at an Outlander convention in Paris earlier this year, Sam described the start of work on Season 8: “We had a read through. They made it a very special occasion. We were on a castle set and they had a bagpipe player. They started playing the Skye Boat Song, the theme tune, and I just…I was gone, I started crying.”
Of his co-star Caitriona Balfe, Sam said: “I could not have picked a better person to be dragged through time with. She’s a great friend now, she’s almost like my sister. We have grown up together. We’ve had all these amazing experiences. But all the cast and the crew as well, we are very, very close, it’s like a big family.”
In the same interview, with Audible UK in January, he spoke about his childhood growing up in Dumfries & Galloway and the influence that has had on his career.
“Outlander has allowed me to go back to Scotland, my homeland, and rediscover Scotland and the beauty that’s there. I grew up in the grounds of a derelict castle in Scotland so that fantasy element…I imagined myself as Robert The Bruce or King Arthur…These were great influences to me growing up.”
In his 2022 memoir Waypoints: My Scottish Journey, Sam talked about growing up in Dumfries & Galloway with his mum Chrissie and brother Cirdan until the age of 12. He was born in Balmaclellan, before the family moved to New Galloway and then to a converted stables complex at nearby Kenmure Castle.
“If anything, that ruined old fortress was responsible for encouraging me to explore how much fun it could be pretending to be other characters,” he wrote.
Away from Outlander, Sam has had a busy few years with other projects including Waypoints, and his earlier Clanlands books with Outlander co-star Graham McTavish and related television series Men In Kilts; playing the romantic lead in 2023 romcom Love Again and starring in Channel 4 psychological thriller series The Couple Next Door.
“Obviously it’s been a great journey playing Jamie Fraser,” says Sam, telling the Paris convention audience: “There are so many memories. It’s gone so fast. Now it’s going to be really sad, I think, when we finish, but it’s bittersweet. We are really happy, we have a cool story, new characters, new sets.
“It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to Jamie I know, but there’s so much to look forward to.”
My Outlander Obsession
‘Outlander sparked an obsessive interest in Scotland. I became fascinated by its history and people’, says our American uber-fan and correspondent Eddie Ciletti from Minnesota. He fell in love with Outlander in the autumn of 2019 and by Christmas had been given a kilt and a square foot of land.
“Between the books and TV series I found myself constantly going down the internet rabbit hole to learn more. My map of Scotland is dotted with ‘places of interest’.
“History books only cover the major personalities, places and dates, but Outlander made that history real to me, and that eventually led to my wife Polly and our two college-aged boys, Luca and Justin, coming to Scotland last summer.”
Their Outlander tour started at Midhope Castle, the real-life inspiration for the fictional Lallybroch, Jamie Fraser's ancestral home, where they met James the caretaker and Charlotte Gollege, the Death Historian. Falkland was their last stop six hours later.
“While the adventures of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beachamp take place in the Highlands, most of the exterior locations are shot in the areas between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Interiors are shot in Cumbernauld,” says Eddie.
“We visited Glasgow and Aberdour Castle (thanks to my friend Ian in Kinghorn) and Charlotte's husband Jamie Corstorphine of City of the Dead Tours gave us a tour of Edinburgh’s underground city and Greyfriars Kirkyard.
“I was willing to accept that the interior of Midhope was not Lallybroch, that the standing stones at Loch Rannoch are only props, and the real Calanais stones on the isle of Lewis don't allow time travel (obviously for safety and insurance reasons). Kidding aside, I am saddened by the series coming to an end.
“Between Covid, Cait’s [Caitriona Balfe who plays Claire] pregnancy, the writers’ strike and who knows what else, the sixth season was six episodes short and only half of the seventh season has aired, and yet as brilliantly executed as if everything was normal.
“The second half will air in November. Season-8 and the prequel, Blood of my Blood, are currently being shot. Season 8 will be the final season - even though there are nine books and a 10th on the way.
“Being a fan and getting to know the actors by their work - and the glimpses we get on social media - make me not ready to let go of the illusion. You know the feeling, when you leave the movie theatre and still feel like the film isn’t over? “Brits are lucky to have so many physical reminders of the past as an excuse (or inspiration) to create period dramas. All the actors - all those whose names fill the end credits - do such a remarkable job of transporting the viewer through time. I have watched more British TV and films just to see the Outlander actors in other roles.
“Thankfully the TV shows and Diana Gabaldon’s books will live on. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe bring their characters to life. They have a very tangible chemistry.
“Thank you, Outlander, and thank you Scotland and to all the friends we have made online and encountered in real life. You are the most welcoming people, and you warmed our hearts to their core. I was sad to leave and hope to return soon.
“I first wrote to Dumfries & Galloway Life as a fan four years ago, never imagining that my comments would be posted. It was a thrill to be in the same magazine as Sam.”
* Dumfries & Galloway Life Editor Andrea Thompson was delighted to meet up with Eddie and his family last summer and is looking forward to welcoming them to Dumfries & Galloway to continue their Outlander journey.
