Every weekend, there is cause for celebration: a nice win at a dog show or field trial, new puppies, a junior handler’s first show — or maybe a wedding, birthday, or new job. We often mark special occasions with a toast and the clink of glasses, and for Collie owners, there is something special to put in those glasses.

Since 2022, Persie Distillery in Perthshire, Scotland, has dedicated limited-edition bottlings in its Charity Collection to particular causes. Earlier editions included Terrier Gin for Terrier SOS, Whippet Gin for JR Whippet Rescue and Golden Retriever Gin for Canine Partners. Persie says each Charity Collection spirit has raised between £1,000 and £5,000 (roughly $1,300 to $6,700) for its charity. Persie lists Collie Gin as its 2026 edition, made in collaboration with the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) Scotland, which marked its 60th anniversary with a dinner and ceilidh in April.

According to Persie, the name “was fairly obvious,” because Collies are “the predominant breed within SARDA Scotland’s pool of operational dogs.” The dogs on SARDA Scotland’s Meet the Dogs page bear that out: nine of the 12 are Collies (or Collie crosses), and of those, five are listed as Border Collies.

Persie says the gin was inspired by the Scottish terrain where search and rescue dogs are trained. In other words, it’s meant to taste like the ground those dogs cover.

What does that even mean?

Wine aficionados have a word for the way a place shows up in a glass: terroir. Collie Gin borrows the idea. The distillery describes it as “a savoury, herbaceous gin, reminiscent of mountains and moorlands,” with top notes of heather, nettles and rosemary.

The dogs are the real story. SARDA’s story begins with Hamish MacInnes, the mountaineer known as the “father of modern mountain rescue in Scotland.” In the early 1960s, he visited an avalanche dog training course in Switzerland and saw what dogs could do in the Scottish hills. Kenny MacKenzie, one of the association’s founders, recalled that on the Continent, dogs, “mainly German Shepherds,” were trained for avalanche rescue. Scotland was different. “Avalanche rescues were not that common in Scotland at the time,” he said. “Our main problem was wilderness searches.” Members brought the dogs they had. “Shepherds in the team had collies,” MacKenzie remembered, while others had trainable family pets. Another founder, Willie Elliot, was a shepherd from Glencoe. The original association covered the whole of the UK, and it later divided into separate national associations.

Over time, the hill dogs changed. According to an account of SARDA’s founding published by The Londog, MacInnes noted that Border Collies have in some respects replaced the German Shepherds used at first. Collies can search much farther from their handlers and bark when they find someone, while German Shepherds work best close to the handler. The BBC has reported a more practical reason: Collies are lighter than German Shepherds, so handlers can lift them more easily.

SARDA Scotland’s dogs are trained to detect human scent in the air. That’s why they are usually deployed early in a call-out, before too many other searchers have reached the area and confused an air-scenting nose. Training begins at 12 weeks and is built on play. A person runs off excitedly with the puppy’s toy, the puppy follows, and when it finds them, it barks for the toy. Finding a person comes to mean a game. The dogs are trained to ride in helicopters and be winched in and out, and they’re tested for how they react to sheep. In 2024, SARDA Scotland reported 58 incidents, 141 handlers deployed, more than 1,050 hours worked and two finds by dogs.

So which Collie is on the label?

Persie never says, and wisely notes that “Collies come in a variety of shapes and sizes.” Buyers can even put a photo of their own dog on the back label of a 50cl bottle. SARDA Scotland says search dogs “can be any breed of dog,” as long as they have excellent scenting ability and are large and strong enough for the job.

To an American fancier, the Collie is a specific AKC breed, shown in Rough and Smooth varieties, or Border Collies. Persie’s Collie is a much bigger tent, and that suits the subject. On a Scottish hillside at night, the dog that matters is the one with the nose, the stamina and the drive to keep working, and in SARDA Scotland’s ranks, that dog is usually some kind of Collie.

Collie Gin ships within the UK only, but Collie owners anywhere can raise a glass to the dogs who inspired it.

Photo: “Border Collie Griff” by Beth Loft, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons