We’ll raise a glass to that.
It’s no secret that Ireland has fallen head over heels in love with gin in recent times. Dublin has been championed as one of the top ten gin capitals globally, we’re setting up Gin and Tonic clubs, even Louth has its own gin school.
No mean feat, given that most people only started to distil it in the first place as a way of alleviating the boredom while waiting for their whiskey to age.
It should come as no shock then to hear that gin sales in Ireland rose by more than 44% in 2017, according to the Irish Spirits Association.
The surge comes as overall alcohol consumption fell nationwide by an estimated 1.4% in 2017, according to the Revenue Commissioner, and 25% since 2005, according to the World Health Organisation.
Detailed in its latest report, Strategy for Irish Gin 2018-2022, the ISA found that sales of gin (Irish and international) had risen in Ireland by 44.3% according to Nielsen.
Meanwhile, there were also increases in on-trade gin sales (40.5%) and off-trade gin (47.2%).
Describing 2017 as a breakthrough year for Irish gin, the rate of exports trebled, while 130,000 cases of Irish gin were sold internationally.
The report went on to state the ISA’s intentions to create an Irish Gin Standard for quality and authenticity as part of its national five-year plan.
Commenting on the news, Pat Rigney, chair of the Irish Gin Working group in the Irish Spirits Association and founder of The Shed Distillery, Co. Leitrim said: “As sales begin to increase at home and abroad, we want to ensure that we can take advantage of this positive growth trajectory by developing world-leading, consumer-focused standards, building on Ireland’s reputation for great food and drink.”
He went on to add: “We are very concerned about some of the unintended negative implications of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.
“We are calling for reasonable amendments to the Bill, to ensure that Irish Gin bottle do not have to carry an extremist health warning taking up one third of the label on what are normally the most attractively-designed spirits bottles. We also believe that the labelling requirements in the Bill could deter imports of gin, hamper innovation and growth among Irish gin producers and create a situation in which there is regulatory misalignment between the North and South.”
The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Andrew Doyle will launch the new strategy with The Irish Spirits Association at an event on 6 April in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
The industry is launching the new strategy ahead of the Gin Experience Dublin, which is taking place in Dublin Castle, 6 and 7 April.
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