New craft gins inspired by Northern Ireland's Orchard Country

A brand new gin range inspired by Northern Ireland's Orchard county has been launched by a recently established distillery near Armagh city.

The Woodlab Distillery - the Laboratory in the Woods - in Benburb, county Armagh produced its first spirits in June of this year and is showcasing three new gins including an Armagh apple variety.

The Symphonia Spirits range is named after the method of production, where a series of flavour notes are produced by bespoke distillation of individual botanicals; these notes are then composed into a series of symphonies.

The spirits are the brainchild of Ric Dyer. Ric has a background in chemistry and spent nearly 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry.

However, two years ago he decided to do something different and apply his skills and knowledge to his other passion - food and drink.

"I had been following the rise of the craft gin industry as an interested consumer for a couple of years but not really considered doing it myself until my wife Fiona said one day matter-of-factly, 'you could do that'," he says.

"It became very clear, very quickly that if I was going to enter this crowded market I had to do something to stand out.

"There were two areas where I felt I could make a difference, one was to use my scientific expertise and the second was to showcase the unique micro-climate here in this part of Northern Ireland.

"I could clearly see a parallel with the wine industry, where vineyards exploit the terroir of their region to produce a specific style of wine and the rise of modern winemakers who have adopted scientific processes and equipment to get the very best out of their grapes," he adds.

He has been developing recipes over last 18 months and has created three spirits: a classic dry gin; an apple gin; and a fruit cup.

Symphonia No.1 - Classic Dry Gin..In addition to the classic botanicals of juniper, coriander seed and angelica this dry gin contains fresh herbs and flowers from the garden including rosemary, basil, dandelion and rose.

Symphonia No.2 - Apple Gin. Apple flavour was always going to feature in any gin Ric produced because of the location. The area around Woodlab distillery is known as the Orchard of Ireland, and is particularly famous for the forty million or so Bramley apples it produces every year.

Ric adds: "I wanted to capture the crisp taste of green apple not the sweet taste of a dessert apple, however despite many efforts to distil this flavour I failed. Instead, I adopted the strategy of adding the apple flavour post distillation by adding freshly pressed local Bramley apple juice."

Symphonia No.3. is a fruit cup which is similar to the popular pink gins appearing on the market but at a lower strength of 25% abv. "The fruit cup was inspired by having loads of raspberries and strawberries picked from the garden filling up the freezer," Ric explains.

The fruit cup contains the same botanicals as a gin, then distilled summer fruits flavours were added and raspberry juice to give it a lovely blush colour.