Every December, the same problem: the gin lover in your life already has gin. Probably several. What they don't have is 90 minutes inside a working distillery with the people who make it, a glass in hand, asking whatever they like. That's the case for giving a distillery tour instead of another bottle. We run the tours at The Stillhouse, Biggar Gin's distillery outside Biggar, so we're not neutral. But we do know exactly how the gifting works, which is what this post is for.
The short version
- The gift is a digital gift card. A £25 card covers one £20 tour with £5 left towards a miniature. It arrives by email, and they book a date that suits them.
- The tour is 90 minutes at The Stillhouse, Symington, near Biggar, in a group of no more than six. Welcome serve on arrival, a walk through the working distillery, then a tasting of four spirits.
- Tours run Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11:00 and 13:30. Booking is required. Participants must be 15 or over; the tasting is for those 18 and over.
- We're about 45 minutes from Glasgow, just off the A73, so it fits into a day out.
What they'll actually get
A tour at The Stillhouse is 90 minutes in the distillery itself, not a visitor centre built to look like one. It starts with a welcome serve of one of our spirits. Then they walk the production process, from the botanicals and the recipe through distillation and cut points to bottling, with both copper stills in front of them. Someone from the team answers questions as they come. It finishes with a tasting: three spirits from the core range and one experimental recipe, whatever we're working on at the time, which nobody can buy anywhere. Groups are capped at six, so it's a conversation rather than a procession.
The practical details. Tours run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11:00 and 13:30, cost £20 a person, and need booking in advance; we can't take walk-ins. Participants must be 15 or over, and the tasting is for those 18 and over, so check before you buy for a teenager. The Stillhouse can be chilly, which is a distillery's way of saying wrap up warm. We're at Wyndales Mill, Symington, Biggar ML12 6HX, just off the A73, about 45 minutes from Glasgow. Make a day of it with lunch in Biggar or a walk up Tinto Hill, which is on our doorstep.
How to gift a tour
Three steps, none of them hard.
- Buy a digital gift card. They come in £10, £25, £50, £100 and £200. A £25 card covers one tour at £20 with £5 left over; a £50 card covers two people with £10 towards two miniatures.
- The card arrives by email with instructions. Forward it, print it, or write the code in a card.
- They book a date on the tour page and use the gift card as payment at checkout. It works on anything in the shop, so if they'd rather have a bottle, that's their call.
They pick the date, so there's no need to commit anyone to a specific Tuesday in January. Because it's digital, it's also the rare genuinely last-minute gift: there's no posting deadline, and it arrives before you've finished your coffee.
If you'd like something physical to unwrap alongside it, our Christmas gift guide has the range by price, from a £5 miniature upwards. A £25 gift card is, conveniently, a tour with £5 towards a miniature of the gin they'll be tasting.
Who it works for
- The person who has everything. They don't have this. In our experience a good afternoon outlasts a good bottle, and this one comes with drinks.
- Couples and small groups. With a six-person cap, booking all six makes it your tour. For a birthday, a hen do or a team day, ask us about a private booking; The Stillhouse is available outside standard hours.
- The whisky person you're converting. Distillation is distillation. If they love the craft side of whisky, a gin still is the same craft with a different rabbit hole, and the rabbit hole is the botanicals.
- Visitors from afar. If someone's coming to Scotland next year, a tour gives their trip an anchor, and Biggar is an easy stop between Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Borders.
- The cocktail person. We occasionally run two-hour Mixology sessions, a longer format that goes into cocktail making with our spirits. Ask us when the next one is and whether a gift card can cover it.
When to book a December visit
If the plan is a visit before Christmas rather than a gift for the new year, book the date now. There are six places per tour and three tour days a week, so December can fill. If the plan is the gift card, there's no rush at all. A tour in the light of a March afternoon is a better tour than one in the dark of a December one.
Enjoy responsibly. Our spirits are for adults aged 18 and over.