A Dram Good Time at Glendalough
From wild botanicals to distinctive Irish oak, Glendalough distills the spirit of Ireland into every bottle.
The Emerald Isle is more than just eye candy. In its pockets of forest, lolling streams, and verdant hedges, a botanical bounty awaits. County Wicklow, which lies just south of Dublin, has earned its moniker as the Garden of Ireland thanks to the diverse flora that cover its glacial valleys, craggy mountains, and gently rolling pasture land. It is here that Glendalough Distillery calls home and from which it gathers the necessary plant life to craft its gins and whiskies. And in a distilling industry largely defined by years in barrels and premium packaging, its commitment to the land is as refreshing as a brisk spring day in Ireland.
Glendalough has taken an unusual approach to harvesting the bounty of Wicklow County, employing a full-time forager. Geraldine Kavanagh grew up in Wicklow and has long been trolling it for its delicacies, but at Glendalough gin is the name of the game, and the botanicals she picks are expressly for that purpose. Throughout the year, Kavanagh brings botanicals—including well-known ones like elderflower and pine as well as obscurities such as water mint—to the distillery for immediate distillation. At the end of the year, each batch of aromatized spirit is blended to craft a gin that captures “a year in every bottle.”
Even head distiller Ciarán “Rowdy” Rooney pays keen attention to the plant life of Wicklow. Often mentioning how the “bean counters” at head office aren’t his biggest fan because of how uncompromising he is when crafting Glendalough’s whiskies, Rooney has taken the unconventional path of sourcing oak from Ireland for barrels. Only small stands of oak dot the landscape now, but it was once the predominant tree on the isle before intensive agriculture led to their widespread clearance. Needless to say, what is left is highly prized, and so when sourcing the wood, Glendalough promotes sustainable forestry practices.
The barrels made from Irish oak are used to mature the distillery’s Pot Still Irish Whiskey and Pot Still Peated Irish Whiskey, but the rest of its lineup of gins and whiskies are well worth a dram. From the Garden of Ireland, Glendalough’s many gins and whiskies are a garden of earthly delights.
Photographs courtesy of Glendalough Distillery.
