Joe McGirr, owner of the Boatyard Distillery with a bottle of their unique gin RMG41
IRELAND’S newest distillery will unveil the Boatyard Double Gin at this weekend’s Festival Lough Erne.
The Boatyard Distillery began production at the picturesque Tully Bay Marina on the banks of Lough Erne in Enniskillen in April.
One of only five distilleries in the North, it’s the first working distillery in Enniskillen since 1887 and the brainchild of Coa man Joe McGirr, who has worked within the industry for over 15 years with Glenmorangie and Moet Hennessy.
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 distillery is based across two buildings on the Lough Shore Road site where Boatyard Double Gin has taken nine months of development.
Joe explained: “Boatyard Double Gin has its name inspired by a traditional Dutch method of distillation called ‘dubbel gebeide genever’. This double contact method allows an even more pronounced juniper flavour and a smooth, velvety rich taste.
“Using eight botanicals, we wanted total transparency with our recipe so we put it on the back label. Juniper equates to 86% of the ingredients. Sweet gale has been foraged from the family farm to give a unique floral element to the gin. We also teamed up with global botanist Susanne Masters to uncover the botanical secrets of Fermanagh.”
The Boatyard is one of the few distilleries in Ireland and the UK to produce the base alcohol used to make gin with brand new technology. Their distinctive distillation process has given 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. The production of the base spirit, and the careful selection of local botanical ingredients gives the Boatyard gin a distinctive taste profile to stand out against competitors in the market,” Joe explained.
“We are really excited to finally unveil 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,” he added.
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.
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