Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin – New Bottle Design

FRESH FROM THE WILD

This new standout bottle has been designed to look as though it has been picked straight from the forest floor. The gin has been progressively crafted with fresh, wild botanicals. The ingredients are hand-picked daily by Ireland’s only full-time Distillery Forager, Geraldine Kavanagh. From the foot of the bottle, the botanicals are beautifully embossed reflecting ingredients such as sorrel, elderflower and fir. Amongst the bottle’s embossed botanicals, reverent nods to Glendalough’s ancient past, further evoking the profound sense of place of Glendalough.  Treading lightly and never taking too much from one place, ingredients from all four Irish seasons are carefully captured in each bottle of Wild Botanical Gin.

Fresh Botanicals hand-picked in the Wicklow Mountains. Our bottle is in honour of Glendalough and tells the story from the base upwards.

Glendalough Wild Botanical Irish Gin

Nose
Fresh notes of juniper, citrus, pine – a forest clearing in spring.

Taste
Citrus Spring greens, Summer flowers, wild Autumn fruits, warm spice

Finish
Long and sylvan with warm Winter spices.

To make this extraordinary gin, we forage wild plants in the mountains around the distillery. What we pick goes fresh into the still within hours of foraging.

All the plants are sustainably picked by our full time forager, every day we distil. We take a lot of care that we don’t adversely affect the areas we find them in. That means sometimes using scissors rather than picking to make sure roots aren’t pulled, or maybe skipping a few before picking the next one, or finding different patches of the same plant, to make sure an area isn’t over-foraged.

Our aim is to leave no trace that we were ever there. It’s harder work but worth it to keep the mountains beautiful and wild.

Then these wild botanicals are painstakingly slow-distilled to tease out delicate flavours, in very small batches of less than 250 liters. Some go in the pot, and some are hung in a basket to let vapours extract their essential oils. The cut-points are decided batch by batch, by smell and taste (never timed or automated) as if each batch is the first.

This brings the flavour our Wild Gin to a whole other level. The knowledge, experience and man-hours in each bottle are what make this liquid so special.

$49.99 currently on sale for $42.99 (until September 2) at BC Liquor stores. $53.99 at the LCBO. Available at outlets in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec. 

Wild Botanical Embossing
Representing the wild, fresh botanicals inside every bottle of our gin. Botanicals from the forest floor are  embossed low down, the one’s higher up adorn the shoulder of our new beautiful recycled glass bottle.

Recycled Glass
Our bottle is made from recycled glass.

Seven Churches
Hidden in the thicket are seven celtic crosses mapping the seven churches of Glendalough.

The Deer Stone
A revered drinking vessel, still found in he Valley today, which legend says promises eternal  youth.

Wicker Basket Bottle Base
A nod to Geraldine’s foraging journey where wild, fresh botanicals are  stored, carried and transported to the Still each day.

THE DISTILLERY

The Glendalough Distillery was set up by a group of friends from Wicklow and Dublin with a passion for reviving the heritage of craft distilling in Ireland.

In the 18th & 19th centuries there were over 200 licensed distilleries in Ireland and along with countless unlicensed ones produced diverse styles of poitín, whiskey, gin and even absinthe. Until recently that dropped to a small handful.

After many an evening’s banter and debate over why there weren’t more craft distilleries in the birthplace of distilling, the friends convinced each other to leave the safety of their day jobs, head into the mountains and take a chance on something more meaningful (much like the man on the bottle, St Kevin). Together they built a craft distillery near their favourite spot in those mountains, Glendalough.

THE VALLEY

Glendalough, or the Glen of two Lakes, is one of the most beautiful, and visited valleys in Ireland.

Just south of Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains are renowned for their natural, scenic beauty. The area known as “the garden of Ireland” – a name it lives up to with ease.

Glendalough is also renowned for its 6th century monastic settlement founded by St Kevin, a legendary monk and the man on our bottle. Monasteries like Glendalough were the birthplace of distilled drinks.

To learn more about Glendalough Distillery click here.

About Geraldine Kavanagh

County Wicklow has a fine reputation for its wildness, its food and the amazing people who work so hard to bring our stories of food to life. One such person is Geraldine Kavanagh of Wild Wicklow Foods.

Geraldine is extremely well known as a professional forager who also offers guided walks in the Wicklow countryside – walks which will allow you to immerse yourself in the wildness and beauty of the mountains but also which will teach you so much about food growing in our hedgerows.

With people choosing to holiday at home County Wicklow is a true gem and it’s people like Geraldine who provides visitors with that off the beaten track experience.

Wicklow Wild Food walks take place weekly on Saturdays between Aughrim and Rathdrum, and they last approximately three hours. During these walks, Geraldine shares her innate and vast knowledge of foraging and her love of plants and nature. Participants learn how to identify leaves, flowers, berries, nuts and mushrooms depending on the season, all while walking through beautiful County Wicklow. Weekday walks are also available.

On a typical walk with this well known forager you will find up to 20 wild foods. Geraldine will explain how to you how you can incorporate these wild foods into your daily diet. She also offers tastes of wild foods that have been preserved in different ways.

Her foraging makes her one of the most interesting food producers in Wicklow.

Geraldine forages wild nettles, wild garlic, wild mushrooms  and other foods in season. Her ever changing selection of food reflects the seasons, so there is always something new and exciting to taste. At home she makes a selection of cakes and breads incorporating wild ingredients including Fraughanberry and Frangipani Tart, Scones with Wild Berry Jam, Traditional Apple and Blackberry Tart and Wild Garlic Bread are among the seasonal offerings. For anyone interested in a sustainable diet or in simply tasting the fascinating flavours of the Wicklow countryside, Wild Wicklow Foods has plenty of knowledge to offer.

A guided foraging walk with Geraldine is a wonderful experience. It offers the chance to reconnect with nature, learn about wild foods and appreciate the beauty of The Garden of Ireland.

Courtesy of Wicklow Fine Foods website.

Tasting notes, video, images and information (except as noted) provided by Sarah Boughen, Mark Anthony Group. I received complimentary product to facilitate this feature.