From the remote Falkland Islands to your glass! Discover the incredible journey of Falkland Islands Spirits, a micro-distillery crafting rare gin with a unique story.
Learn how this local company overcame logistical nightmares, using Royal Navy ships to transport their spirits. They bottle on the Isle of Man and cater to collectors seeking authentic and hard-to-find gins.
Their gin features fresh ingredients, including scurvygrass. With limited production, their gin is a must-try for gin enthusiasts looking for something truly special!
00:00I'm the managing director of a locally owned company called Falkland Islands Spirits.
00:07But the big story behind it is we're part of a micro distillery that's based in the Falkland Islands, 8,000 miles away.
00:15So how did you get into that?
00:17Well as it so happens, we'll cut the story down to a short story.
00:21We formed a company, we brought in another local friend of Tafts.
00:26So I took a 20% share in this distillery, saw the other colleague took in 20% and Taft then took 60%.
00:35I mean he's the brainchild behind it all to be fair.
00:39And we went into business, put a new building up, put new stills in it.
00:43It was an overnight success dare and say it.
00:45I mean everything that we sort of put together in the original business plan worked and more besides it worked.
00:53We were getting then lots and lots of enquiries, once we got going we were getting enquiries from people who were sending emails to us and saying,
01:02you know we bought a bottle of your stuff when we were on the Falkland Islands, we called for a day on a cruise ship.
01:06Yeah.
01:06Where can we buy it in Britain?
01:09And it was a case of we can't.
01:12There was logistical difficulties.
01:14I mean there are no regular scheduled airlines flying to the Falklands.
01:17There's no shipping line, sales to the Falkland Islands.
01:20The only way you get there and back is by the RAF.
01:24And they wouldn't fly it.
01:26Yeah.
01:26They just wouldn't.
01:27So we had great difficulty.
01:29You couldn't even post it because if you took it to the post office and asked them to post it, they used the RAF.
01:35And the RAF would refuse to fly it because it was spirit and they wouldn't have it.
01:40So we have this logistical problem.
01:42Eventually we found a way to do it.
01:45And we actually now bring the stuff in bulk tanks and we bring it in in a bulk tank, 500 litre tank and we bring it here.
01:55And the Royal Navy, Royal Fleet, Auxiliary Fleet, sail it for us.
01:59And that's what I was going to ask you.
02:00So is that the Ministry of Defence ship in Baldwin then?
02:03Yes.
02:04Yeah.
02:04Yeah.
02:04So we've now got that.
02:06That calls on the Falklands every six weeks.
02:08If we need it to bring stuff, then it brings stuff for us.
02:11But as I say, we bring it in a proper stainless steel spirit tank.
02:15It's a bit of a job.
02:17And we bring it here.
02:18We bottle it here.
02:20But this is all as a result of people asking because we realised there was a demand in the British Isles to sell this stuff.
02:28And yes, there is.
02:29I mean, you know, gin's become a very popular drink, as you know, they don't know over the last 10 years.
02:34And it's just proving to be.
02:36The Isle of Man was an ideal base.
02:38You know, I'm from here, almost originally.
02:42But as I say, you know, that's where the story came from.
02:46It's just a group of islands.
02:48Everybody thinks they're tiny.
02:50Truth of the matter is, they have actually got a land area the size of Wales.
02:54Oh, really?
02:54Yeah.
02:55But there's a population equivalent to Port St Mary.
02:59So you've 3,000 people living in this huge land area.
03:02So it's very remote.
03:04That's interesting.
03:04And you lived there for a little bit.
03:06I lived there for six years, yeah.
03:07Wow.
03:08Yeah.
03:08So it comes on such a long journey from the Falkland Islands all the way here on the Minitary History of Defence ship.
03:15What's the process once it gets here, bottling it?
03:18What's the behind the scenes?
03:20The actual spirit arrives in Southampton at the Millard Report in Southampton.
03:24It has to clear customs, so we have to pay duty at that point.
03:28Once it's clear customs, a local haulage firm in Ballisawa, they bring it from Southampton Forest, bring it to here.
03:39It's a simple operation here, but the operation is a marketing operation as much as it's obviously a bottling operation.
03:46Do you sell locally to the island now in the shops here?
03:50Yeah.
03:51Yeah.
03:51Yes.
03:51In fact, we've made an arrangement locally with the wine cellar on Peel Road.
03:57They're actually the local distributor for us.
04:00What sort of audience do you think you best cater to?
04:05Because when I think of gin, my idea of gin, my experience with gin is Gordon's pink gin, some lemonade when I was younger.
04:13And that was my drink for about six months on a night out.
04:17That's right.
04:18Okay.
04:18I think we're going to the other end of the market.
04:21We're going to the old wrinklies.
04:23But no, we're going to the older end.
04:25But we're going also to the specialist collector's market.
04:28There's definitely a collector's market for what we'll call rare gins.
04:33And it's very difficult to get your hands on it, as you can imagine.
04:36You know, we can only, in a year, we can only produce as a maximum.
04:40And that's taking the Falklands combined with the production that we sell here.
04:45We can only sell 3,000 litres because that's all we can produce.
04:50Yeah.
04:50The unique selling point is location where it's made.
04:54Ingredients that we put in it are fresh.
04:57And the other thing, as you say, is the actual location, unique selling point.
05:02Because you have, so you've only got one gin available at the moment on the Isle of Man.
05:07Yeah.
05:07What flavours does that have in it?
05:10Scurvygrass.
05:10Scurvygrass.
05:11It sounds like something pirates can drink.
05:14Well, it is.
05:15I suppose everybody sort of sees it as a nautical thing.
05:19Because in history, scurvy was given to sailors who sailed the high seas for 12 months at a time.
05:26And they became vitamin deficient in their diet.
05:30And so as soon as they got to landfall, they'd be looking for scurvygrass, which is a wild plant.
05:35And they'd eat it raw because it's full of vitamins.
05:39Now, we can't claim we're selling a health drink.
05:41I think we're stretching it too far there.
05:44But the scurvy gives it a really distinct taste.
05:46Well, I think it's really interesting.
05:47Maybe it's a strange thing.
05:48But that's the one that's why we're trying to do.
