Glendalough Distillery has launched refreshed bottle designs for its Glendalough Wild Botanical and Wild Rose Gins. The new bottles look to evoke a sense of place that transports you to the distillery’s home in County Wicklow in the hills, forests, and fields of East Ireland.
Glendalough Irish Gin is crafted with fresh, wild botanicals from the Wicklow Mountains that are hand-picked daily by Ireland’s only full-time forager, Geraldine Kavanagh. The reimagined packaging of these gins envelops the essence of the product. Created in homage to the lush valley of Glendalough in County Wicklow, otherwise known as “the Garden of Ireland”, the new bottle has been crafted 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, additionally reflected in the new bottle design.
When it comes to the distillation process, time is of the essence. Every day, within hours of foraging, Geraldine’s harvest is handed to Glendalough Distillery’s Head Distiller, Ciarán “Rowdy” Rooney who then uses small-batch slow-distillation methods to tease out the delicate flavors. “The inspiration for the flavor of our gin comes from the scents, sights and tastes of Glendalough and it’s my job to put that essence into the bottle,” says Kavanagh. “Since we grow the ingredients in the wild, 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. This new bottle is a reminder of the significance of preserving the beautiful Irish landscape.”
Glendalough Wild Rose Gin was created by Rowdy to honor his mother, Rose. “I developed Glendalough Wild Rose Gin to honor my mom whose name was Rose,” says Rowdy. “Mom loved her garden and to this day every single batch of Glendalough Wild Rose Gin has roses from my mother’s garden in it, which is now lovingly tended to by my dear sister, Bonnie.”
The wild botanicals foraged by Kavanagh are embossed on the foot and surrounding area of the bottle to reflect ingredients that bloom high and low in Wicklow. Botanicals such as sorrel, elderflower and fir create the distinct notes of Glendalough Wild Botanical Irish Gin. There are also nods to Glendalough’s ancient past such as the Monastery Archway, Seven Churches and Deer Stone, further evoking the profound sense of place of Glendalough. Kavanagh’s care for the land is preserved on the new bottle design with an embossed woven pattern sitting at the base, representing the handwoven basket with which she forages daily.
Bottled at 41% ABV, the new Glendalough bottles are available now at select retailers nationwide for $32.99 per 750m bottle. For more information on Glendalough Irish Gin, head over to the brand’s official website.
Last year, Glendalough Distillery unveiled a 7-year-old Irish single malt whiskey aged in very rare Japanese Mizunara casks sourced from the island of Hokkaido, Japan.
