by Emily Cathcart 

With its own botanical garden on site, Stillgarden Distillery mixes science, community and nature to create drinks with a difference. The seeds of innovation that co-founders Viki Baird and Pat O’Brien have planted have already blossomed into prosocial success. 

ALHAUS spoke with Brand Manager Aideen Hannigan and learned how Stillgarden has been shaking up spirits in the heart of Ireland’s capital. 

ALHAUS MAGAZINE: You opened your doors in Inchicore, Dublin, during a turbulent time for independent business. What opportunities has that presented? 
STILLGARDEN DISTILLERY: Fortunately for us, we had always planned on being a digitally led brand and had already begun to prepare for our direct-to-consumer route to market. We also found other opportunities to start building our community projects and develop programmes such as our Social Botanist Project, which played a central role in the creation of our pioneering Social Gin. 

The Social Botanist Project started in the first lockdown when we gave hospitality workers and local people botanical grow kits to take home. When they brought them back, we began to populate the garden with plants that had been lovingly grown by our community. Mint and lavender were two of the botanicals that thrived and thus became two essential ingredients in our flagship Social Gin after a tasting with the Social Botanists. 

The project has since expanded to a broader community of local Inchicoreans, Dubliners, South Africans, plant-lovers, gin enthusiasts, foragers, botanists, environmental groups, among many other eclectic personalities. The Social Botanist Project offers social gardening hours, foraging trips, exclusive tastings, seed packs, grow kits, a community that can offer plant advice, and a platform to get to know like-minded individuals who care about the environment and the spaces we share. 

AM: You've been working with fellow experimenters and innovators. Are there any exciting collaborations on the horizon?
SD: We absolutely love collaborating with innovative, unique and like-minded brands. There are unlimited possibilities and, hopefully, there will be more of that in the future. For us, collaborating is about representing both brands in the best possible light.  

Our most recent collaboration with Valentia Island Vermouth produced Ireland's first-ever truly Irish Negroni. This vibrantly red, premium cocktail is a true celebration of community and expert drinks makers, and was crafted from our Social Gin, O’Maro and the Valentia Island Vermouth—the latter two being the first products of their kind ever made in this country. 

Stillgarden’s O’Maro is a round and rich Irish Amaro with a sweet complex finish, made with community-sourced ingredients from our neighbourhood of Inchicore, Dublin 8. This is beautifully combined with Valentia Island’s sweet vermouth, made from 20 different botanicals, including plants and herbs foraged locally from the southwest coast of Kerry. It is a wonderful collaboration of Irish spirits to create an Irish first. 

AM: What makes the Distillery so unique in your eyes? 
SD: We are based in a buzzing, creative area of Dublin and are passionate spirit lovers who are constantly looking to evolve through innovation. Enjoying spirits should be modern, fun-filled and bursting with vibrancy, utilising unique flavours to create a positive impact on the planet. We call this ‘prosocial disruption’ (or modern craft). We make modern Irish spirits using as many fresh, local and sustainably grown botanicals as we can and capture those amazing flavours through some very cool science. Our spirits aren’t just focused on high ABV [alcohol by volume], we also have a range of lower-strength alcohol products, so you can match the drink to the mood and occasion. 

AM: We’ve loved hearing about how you’ve blended the essential ingredients of modern methods, local people and respect for nature. How important is storytelling to Stillgarden? 
SD: Sharing our story is hugely important to us as it brings our brand to life and helps to connect the dots between those three key pillars of science, community, and nature. It provides our audience with moments of discovery and with anecdotes they can then share with others. In short, our story is about believing in the infinite possibilities of harnessing all forms of science to explore nature, enabling us to create amazing modern Irish spirits that bring people—and communities—together. 

@stillgardendistillery 
@StillgardenD8
stillgardendistillery.com