7. Skellig Six18 Artisan Pot Still Gin
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Coming in at the base of the rankings is Skellig Six18 Artisan Pot Still Gin, though “base” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Distilled in small batches at the Skellig Six18 Distillery in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, this 43.4% ABV gin is built around ten botanicals, several of them foraged locally: yarrow, fresh Douglas fir needles, birch sap and dillisk (that’s Atlantic seaweed, for the uninitiated). The result is an herbaceous, almost coastal gin with a citrus backbone and pink grapefruit brightness that cuts through the wilder, more vegetal notes like a sea breeze through a pine grove. At around $42, it’s an honest expression of its windswept corner of Ireland, and the pot still production gives it a textural weight that column-distilled gins rarely achieve. It scores an 85, which puts it last on this list but ahead of most of what’s sitting on your average back bar.
6. Conncullin Irish Gin
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Conncullin Irish Gin comes out of Connacht Distillery in County Mayo, where master distiller Robert Cassell uses water drawn from two local lakes, Conn and Cullin, to build a spirit that tastes distinctly of where it’s made. Juniper leads, with elderberry flower and hawthorn berry layering in behind it for a profile that sits somewhere between a classic dry gin and something more hedgerow-forward. The hawthorn in particular gives the finish a faintly tart, berry-jam quality that lingers. Bottled at 47% and running around $43 to $54, it’s approachable without being boring.
5. Dingle Gin
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Dingle Gin is probably the most recognizable name on this list outside of Ireland, and its 89-point score confirms the reputation is earned. Produced at Dingle Distillery in County Kerry using rowan berry, fuchsia, bog myrtle, hawthorn and heather, the botanical selection reads like a field guide to the Irish countryside. The 24-hour maceration before distillation, combined with a flavor basket pass, extracts everything those botanicals have to offer: the nose is floral and slightly smoky, the palate is earthy and bright at once, and the finish has a dried-flower dustiness. Bottled at 42.5% ABV and priced at round $30, it’s the gin you reach for when you want to explain what makes Irish gin different from everything else.
4. Boatyard Double Gin
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Boatyard Double Gin earns its name. The base spirit is organically sourced wheat, macerated for 18 hours with eight botanicals before distillation, which gives it more structural density than most of its peers. The standout is Sweet Gale, harvested from the distillery’s own family farm in Fermanagh, lending a resinous, almost piney quality that works well against the brightness of fresh unwaxed lemon peel. At 46% ABV and around $40, it holds up in a Negroni without bullying the vermouth. The organic sourcing isn’t a marketing footnote either; it produces a cleaner base that lets the botanicals come through without interference.
3. Silks Irish Dry Gin
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Silks Irish Dry Gin from Boann Distillery makes you stop and reconsider what “dry” actually means. Fourteen botanicals, including juniper, citrus peel, apple blossom, honey and Irish heather, go through traditional copper pot stills and come out floral and gently sweet without tipping into the cloying territory that sinks most honey-forward gins. The apple blossom hits the nose first, clean and bright, while the heather pulls the finish back toward something earthier and more grounded. At around $35 and 42% ABV, it scores 92 points and makes a reasonable case for being among the best values on this list.
2. Garnish Island Gin
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West Cork Distillers doesn’t make much noise for a producer that consistently outperforms its profile, and Garnish Island Gin is the clearest proof of that. Named for the island off the Beara Peninsula whose Italian-designed gardens rank among the more surreal sights in Ireland, this 46% ABV gin draws on locally foraged hibiscus, iris, rose, rosemary and thyme. The result genuinely smells like walking through those gardens on a warm afternoon. It’s botanical-forward in a way that feels more Mediterranean than Atlantic, which sounds like a contradiction until you taste it. At around $35 and a Critics’ Score of 94, it’s another affordable bottle in this ranking and probably the most surprising.
1. Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin With Sardinian Citrus
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Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin with Sardinian Citrus from The Shed Distillery in County Leitrim blends eight pot still botanicals with four vapor-infused botanicals, the latter sourced by founder PJ Rigney during a journey through China. It is brightened with “Sa pompia” (Citrus monstruosa), a rare Sardinian citrus that combines grapefruit and bergamot notes. Bottled at 43% ABV, the pot still botanicals give weight and warmth, while the vapor-infused botanicals and Sardinian citrus add brightness and aromatic complexity. The dual production method creates a gin with depth and dimension beyond its peers. It scores 95 points and earns every one.
Irish gin’s moment has been building for years, and this list captures exactly why. Seven bottles, seven distinct expressions of an island with an embarrassment of botanical riches and the distilling talent to do something interesting with all of it. Start anywhere on this list, and you won’t be disappointed; end at Drumshanbo, and you’ll understand why the category deserves far more attention than it gets.