Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin’s new bottle design is inspired by the wild beauty of Ireland, that weaves the story of place and people. Created in homage to the bountiful valley of Glendalough in County Wicklow, otherwise known as ‘the Garden of Ireland’, the new bottle has been designed to look as though it has been picked straight from the forest floor. Located in the heart of Ireland’s Ancient East, Glendalough is also home to one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland, founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. St. Kevin stands as a strong but gentle guardian on the front of the new bottle instilling his legacy of reverence for the land he discovered.

Glendalough Irish Gin is progressively crafted with fresh, wild botanicals and hand-picked daily by Ireland’s only full-time Distillery Forager, Geraldine Kavanagh. Capturing the purest expression of the rich land of Glendalough, County Wicklow, through the depth of flavour is how Glendalough Distillery creates its luxury gins.

Treading lightly and never taking too much from one place, Geraldine considerately forages for fresh and flavourful ingredients all year round to capture the four Irish seasons in every bottle of Glendalough Irish Gin. The new bottle design with an embossed woven pattern sitting at the base, representing the handwoven basket with which she forages daily. From the foot of the bottle, the wild botanicals that Geraldine forages grow and are beautifully embossed around the bottle reflecting the ingredients such as sorrel, elderflower, and fir, that create the distinct notes of Glendalough Wild Botanical Irish Gin. Amongst the bottle’s embossed botanicals,reverent nods to Glendalough’s ancient past can also be found including the Monastery Archway, Seven Churches and Deer Stone, further evoking the profound sense of place of Glendalough.

Kavanagh says:“The inspiration for the flavour of our gin comes from the scents, sights and tastes of Glendalough and it’s my job to put that essence of place into the bottle. The ingredients that we use grow in the wild and we take a lot of care to ensure that we don’t adversely affect the areas we forage from. To see the story of Glendalough and our process come to life in the new bottle and bring our Irish gin to the world stage is really special and a reminder of the significance of preserving the beautiful Irish landscape.”

When it comes the distillation process, time is of the essence. Every day, within hours of foraging,Geraldine’s harvest is handed to Ciarán“Rowdy” Rooney, Glendalough Distillery’s Head Distiller, who then uses small-batch slow-distillation to tease out the delicate flavours. Glendalough Distillery’s Wild Botanical Irish Gin serves the taste of‘a year in every bottle’and perfectly captures a place in time, with four seasons of foraging in wild Wicklow encapsulated in every bottle. Rowdy also created Glendalough Wild Rose Irish Gin as a tribute to his late mother, which is now also bottled in the new design. This award-winning gin was first created to toast his late mother Rose at his brother’s wedding and is carefully crafted using fresh rose petals from her own garden to create an exceptional gin. NOTE: The Wild Rose Gin is not currently available in Canada.

The end result of this slow movement, hand-crafted process is an outstanding, award-winning, easy drinking gin with aromas of juniper, lemon, pine, and a light, fresh meadow note. The palate reveals flavours of honeysuckle, spice, and citrus, along with a delicate floral tone. It’s medium-bodied and fruity with a long, balanced finish. A great option to create a classic Martini cocktail, or it’s awesome sipped neat to savour the flavours. Enjoy!

The distillery has also created world-firsts, like Irish single malt whiskey aged in rare Japanese Mizunara oak, and Irish single malt aged in Irish oak. Glendalough Distillery has won multiple global awards, including Ireland’s Distillery of the Year (New York International Spirits Competition 2022), Gold in the World Gin Masters at the Spirits Business Awards and more, bringing in a total of 24 accolades for Glendalough Distillery in 2022.

Available in Ontario at the LCBO

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.