Douglas Dry Gin

Our Douglas Dry Gin review finds a powerful and satisfying Isle of Man gin by the Seven Kingdom Distillery. It’s bottled at 40% ABV (80 proof) using local Manx water.

The Seven Kingdom Distillery is a combined distillery, bar and restaurant down near the harbour of the Isle of Man’s capital, Douglas. We’ve added a wider review of Isle of Man gin, and a bit more about the island itself, here. The gin still can be seen from the bar and restaurant (which is, pleasingly, situated upstairs so you can look down at it whilst having some of their lovely food too).

Incidentally, the Seven Kingdoms referred to are not related to Game of Thrones (which makes a nice change!) They actually date back to a common view that there are seven kingdoms that can be seen from the Isle of Man: England; Ireland; Scotland; Wales; Heaven; the Isle of Man itself; and earth (or sometimes the sea is named – we’re happy to be corrected). The cat on the bottle is a Manx, tailless cat.

Sample botanicals: Juniper; gorse; honey; bay leaf

Douglas Dry Gin review

The gin itself is a corker, and it was great to first try it with food in a seat about 5 metres above where it was created. However, we also made sure we stocked up before we headed home off the island to ensure we weren’t just reviewing it favourably based on ambience.

First of all, we found to have a very smooth finish to it. It has a pleasant fruity undertone to it; not anything citrusy – almost more of a hint of ‘light peach’. That was the best description we could collectively find for it, but we were all agreed it was very enjoyable. Probably this comes from the gorse in this gin – it seems to be a botanical that, although unusual, appears to work very well in gin (nb. although gorse is unusual, it’s also in the Fynoderee Gin Spring Edition, another Isle of Man gin, that we reviewed here]. Furthermore, we think the honey adds to the botanical mix very well too.

How to serve

We’ve tried Douglas Dry Gin in a variety of ways. Our favourites were to serve it as part of a gin and tonic; and also simply over ice. For the gin and tonic, we don’t think this is a gin that needs too much tonic. Enjoy it over ice with, we recommend, just under double the tonic to gin. We tried several different garnishes, and we’d simply suggest you use your favourite – this is a confident gin that doesn’t get overpowered. Likewise, as noted, we also enjoyed it without tonic over ice.

As an aside, we also tried some fantastic local Indian tonic water from the Isle of Man. This is made (also in Douglas) by the Roots Beverage Co, and is sweetened by honey rather than sugar. A share of the profits go to bee-related projects. It really is a very good tonic; get hold of yours from their website above.

Douglas Dry Gin comes highly recommended, as do the restaurant and bar at the Seven Kingdom Distillery. The team there are very welcoming, so make sure you pay them a visit if you’re lucky enough, as we were this Easter, to make it to the beautiful Isle of Man.

Buy Douglas Dry Gin

This is the hard part, as this is a tricky gin to get hold of if you’re not on the Isle of Man. In the UK, we think it’s been available on Master of Malt here – it appears sold out at time of writing, but do check the link to see if it’s back in stock. Similar story on Amazon here – worth checking back to see if it’s available. Let us know if you come across stockists and we’ll add them.

This is a local gin at the moment. As a result, we haven’t seen Douglas Dry Gin available in the US or Canada as yet. Check out alternative gins on Drizly via the advert below (or vacation on the Isle of Man and take in the world famous TT races…)

Above all, we hope you manage to get your hands on some Douglas Dry Gin. If you do, let us know what you think in the comments below, or email us at [email protected].