Conversations with Creatives - Bertha's Gin Edition

In this instalment of Conversations with Creatives, we visited the magnificent Bollyvolane House, which is not only a beautiful historic country house, but also the birthplace of Bertha’s Revenge, a small batch gin distillery, started by Antony Jackson and Justin Green back in 2015.

Situated in North Cork, Ballyvolane is the beautiful family
home of Justin Green and his wife Jenny, who run the house as a country hotel. Sitting down with Antony and Justin, you quickly realise what colourful characters they both are. Childhood schoolfriends, their backgrounds are fantastically varied.
Antony’s background spreads from agricultural college through to dot com booms, and on into the wine industry, while Justin spent a long time in the luxury hotel industry in both Europe and Asia heading up some of SoHo House’s early projects.

In a very similar way to the origins of Kempt, Bertha’s
Revenge started out as a ‘what if’ conversation between Antony and Justin. As we have mentioned before, we are always intrigued by people who are driven by their passion and follow their dreams. To listen to Antony and Justin, their passion for Bertha comes through in spades. Their attention to detail is second to none, even the name, we think you’ll agree, is quite special.

They came across the name Bertha through their friend Turtle Bunbery and it is a great story, which you can read here BigBertha, Irelands' oldest cow & legend of Sneem in Kerry(ballyvolanespirits.ie

Their desire to work with local suppliers is very strong.
While talking with Antony and Justin, we got the feeling that certain components along the way could be sourced more easily but their loyalties to their suppliers is more important. It also highlights the love and passion that goes into each bottle.

We love to see Kempt shirts worn by all manner of people but when we see like-minded creative people wearing our shirts, it makes us very proud.

To see a Kempt shirt on someone going about their day-to-day activities in an industry that is creative and are passionate about is very special. To watch Antony and Justin prepare a fresh batch of Bertha’s Revenge Gin the day we visited while wearing their Kempt pieces was fantastic.

‘How hands on are they?’ we hear you ask. We personally witnessed the lads fill, seal and uniquely number each bottle from that particular batch. It’s yet another similarity between Bertha’s Revenge and Kempt. Anytime we prepare a package for a customer, we hope that the customer who has bought the product will appreciate the time, love and attention that has gone in to getting it to them.

It would have been a shame not to try one of their house cocktails when offered, so when the lads suggested a rhubarb martini, we nodded enthusiastically. The rhubarb in this instance was picked straight from the garden on the grounds, however you should be able to find in a local greengrocer.

Thanks to Antony and Justin for sharing their story with us. Try out their recipe for a rhubarb martini...

for 20 seconds. Empty the ice from the glass, strain the contents of the
shaker into the martini glass.

Drink and go back for more!

To make the rhubarb syrup..

Heat the sugar and water in a pan, slowly bringing to the
boil until the sugar has evaporated.

Add the chopped rhubarb and grated ginger.

Cook until the rhubarb is soft and mushy, let cool for an hour.

Strain through a sieve into a sterilised container.

It should keep in the fridge for a number of weeks.