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.
Double Barrel Irish Whiskey
Double Barrel Irish WhiskeyUpon its release, this whiskey won double gold at The World Spirits Competition in San Francisco. It really is an Irish whiskey that will make you think twice about Irish whiskey. A lovely, light and drinkable whiskey, it’s also complex with a depth of flavour beyond its years.
Aged twice in barrels from far sides of the world, the flavours are a game of two halves.
American oak Bourbon barrels bring sweet honey and smooth vanilla notes, laying down the foundations of the flavours. The Spanish oak Oloroso barrels layer on dried fruit, and nutty flavours.
To find the best Oloroso casks, we go off the beaten track to the small Andalusian town of Montilla, home of the famous PX grape. Here we can talk one on one with producers, chose the bodega, the liquid, the time seasoning, and eventually the casks. This gives us more influence on the flavours in our Double Barrel whiskey.
Gran Cru Burgundy Single Cask
Gran Cru Burgundy Single Cask
Wild Botanical Gin
Wild Botanical GinTo 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.