44 MARKET WATCH | MARKETWATCHMAG.COM | JUNE 2019

G

in,

Artisan Spirit

t Glendalough Distillery in County Wick-

low, Ireland, the flagship Wild gin contains

over 30 botanicals, picked from the

surrounding hillsides by the distillery’s

forager, Geraldine Kavanagh, whose name

and signature are on every bottle. “Foraging

is who we are—it’s at the core of the brand,”

says Glendalough co-founder and marketing director

Gary McLoughlin.

Glendalough isn’t alone in this intensive attention to

detail. In recent years, scores of craft distillers have launched

gin expressions touting unique origin stories and botanical

compositions of their own. While many of them have seen

success in European markets like the UK and Spain, the

U.S. has been tougher to penetrate. Gin consumption in

the U.S. has fallen steadily since 1975, when depletions

stood at 18.43 million cases, according to Impact Data-

bank. Last year, the market stood at half that volume level

at 9.28 million cases. But the tide may be turning, as bartend-

ers increasingly champion gin in cities across the country and

the number of innovative expressions continues to rise, from

both stalwarts and craft distillers.

A