New Boatyard Gin launched in Northern Ireland

Boatyard Gin has been launched by a new craft distillery in Northern Ireland which also has plans to produce Irish whiskey and vodka.

The new gin - Northern Ireland's fourth in the past five years, has been established at Enniskillen, county Fermanagh by three industry specialists. The gin is the first in Fermanagh for 130 years, and the distillery overlooks picturesque Lough Erne in Northern Ireland's Lakelands.

Boatyard Gin (ABV 48% and available in distinctive 70cl bottles), is the brainchild of Fermanagh native man Joe McGirr, who has worked within the industry for over 15 years with Glenmorangie and Moet Hennessy.

In 2014, he joined the London Distillery Company as chief operating officer and had always hoped to move back to his native Fermanagh. The new team includes Darren Rook, a founder of London Distillery Company, and Greg Dillon, another with significant industry experience.

The concept for The Boatyard Distillery was born three years ago with the simple ethos to create award winning spirits from local raw materials. Since then, Joe and his team have built the concept through to location, engineering, planning permission, HMRC bonded spirit approval, spirit creation and branding.

The first phase of work will see the creation of a visitor centre later this year for distillery tours, gin tastings and a retail shop.
Small-batch gin is now being developed at the Boatyard, one of just two licensed distilleries in Northern Ireland. It produces the base alcohol used to make gin with brand new technology.

Their distinctive distillation process will give the Boatyard Distillery absolute control over the first part of the process which the owners say is not possible when buying in pre-made base spirit from other suppliers.

"This is our new take on the brave new world of gin and especially Irish gin. This base spirit will be infused with a unique blend of botanicals selected by a botanist specially trained in using wild plants to make and flavour alcohol.

"The production of the base spirit, and the careful selection of local botanical ingredients will help give the Boatyard gin a distinctive taste profile to stand out against competitors in the market," McGirr says.

"We are really excited to finally begin production of our first product. We have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time and are lucky to have a strong and experienced team behind us.

"Not only that, but we have the most incredible distillery backdrop in the world where visitors can reach the door by land or by water," he adds.

The second phase of structural work will see the creation of a vodka production area. This will be one of the first vodkas in Ireland to be distilled from locally harvested potatoes.
Work on this phase will start after completing the successful funding and investment round and will get underway early next year.