Dublin: Now Ireland will be lucky to taste the immense pleasure of the new Malayali gin. A new distillery now started functioning in Ireland, which bottles the secret recipes of aroma and tastes of Wayanad. The distillery is run by Bhagya Barret, a Keralite and her husband, Robert Barret.
Rum and Gin will be the first bottles to reach Cork city from this distillery. The Rebel City Distillery’s first product was a Kerala style gin called ‘Maharani’ and it became a hit from the very beginning.
This is for the first time in 50 years that a distillery has been opened in Cork city. It was Robert’s dream to start a distillery of his own, because he was into this business for a long time. At last along with his better half he was able to start the Rebel City Distillery.
Bhagya is a Keralite and also a software engineer. Before reaching Ireland, she used to work in Chennai and Madras.
Robert initially worked at the Cooley distillery in County Lot. Later he migrated to Vancouver. Robert focused on Whiskey, gin and vodka.
Later he returned to Ireland and worked as a consultant distiller till 2019 July.
The owners claim that the new gin will be the celebration of Cork – Kerala culture.
She said that some of the secret ingredients for the gin were obtained from the local women in Wayanad.
The entire process from distillation to bottling and labeling happens on site in Cork city. Maharani Gin is the blend of citrus and spices.
While speaking about the taste of the newly arrived gin, Bhagya said that one could experience the sweetness of the mountain spices in each sip. Robert said that they will be expanding the new company further in September.
They are also planning to launch a ‘Gin School’ where the public could take a tour and learn and learn about the distillery process and also to taste the liquor.
The manufacturing of Rum products will start by next year only. ‘Maharani Gin’ is available at websites such as irishmalts.com and also through other small shops and the price of it is just 49 Euro.
From 1917 to 1987, this factory of Henry Ford and Sons was one of the industrial centers of Cork city and it was also the largest work place in the city. Robert and Bhagya choose to run the distillery in this place which had been inactive for decades.
Robert and Bhagya says that despite of the Covid-19 challenges, the Kerala gin got a huge acceptance and that is very promising. They are very much happy with the encouragement they received from many journalists and food bloggers like Tom Doeley.