GWYR Gower London Dry Gin

A converted bike shed in Port Eynon, on the Gower peninsula, houses the micro-distillery where The Gower Gin Company makes GŴYR, its original London Dry GinLondon DryA style, not a place of origin: every flavour comes from distilling natural botanicals. After distillation only water and a trace of sugar may be added, with no flavouring or colouring.GlossarySee London Dry gins. Siân and Andrew Brooks launched the company in 2017, and GŴYR, the Welsh name for Gower, remains the base on which several of the other gins of the house are built.

Citrus · Dry · Spicy · Herbal

The recipe uses eight botanicals on a grain base spirit, including juniper, bronze fennel, green fennel, lemon zest and pink grapefruit zest. The botanicals macerate for almost two days before a slow distillation in Arianwen, a 200-litre pot stillPot stillA traditional still, often copper, that distils in batches. It keeps more texture and character than a column.Glossary whose Welsh name means Silver Spirit, and each run produces up to 300 bottles. Bottled at 43% ABV, the gin also forms the base of Rhamanta, the rose and pomegranate version of the range. The same shed produces Pinwydd, with foragedForagingPlants gathered by hand in the wild (woods, heath, coastline) rather than grown or bought in.Glossary pine tips, and Rhosili, with gorse flowers and sea buckthorn.

Fennel is the signature of GŴYR. Green fennel brings a fresh, gently aniseed note, while bronze fennel, a variety with coppery leaves, tends to be softer and more aromatic; together they add a herbal line between the resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary juniper and the citrus. Lemon zest keeps the top bright and pink grapefruit zest adds a fragrant, slightly bitter edge, so the gin stays crisp and dry rather than sweet.

Recognition has followed: GŴYR won Gold and Best Welsh London Dry when the World Gin Awards were judged in 2024, and the company was voted Industry Choice Distillery by the Gin Guide Awards in 2022. Visitors can taste it in the gin garden at Port Eynon, which welcomes small groups. Over a light tonicLight tonicA low- or no-sugar tonic, often sweetened with substitutes. Drier, it brings out the bitterness and the gin.Glossary, the fennel stays precise, and a twist of pink grapefruit zest echoes the citrus of the recipe while leaving the herbal notes in front.