About Us

2019
We opened Spirit of the Rock distillery in George’s Lane in April 2019 where we began distilling small batch, hand crafted spirits and promoting a lesser known and better Gibraltar. Usually renowned for cheap booze and alcohol not to mention smuggling, we thought we would steer away from the infamy and work towards fame. We wanted something contemporary, fresh and vibrant not harking back to times gone by; battles, dates and military men and we found this in the amazing flora and fauna of Gibraltar.

Who knew? One of the rarest flowers in the world grows here on the rock. Thought to be extinct but then rediscovered in the 1990s, Campion (Silene tomentosa) grows wild nowhere else in the world and therefore had to be the name of our first gin. A beautiful plant with tiny flowers and a heady scent similar to jasmine, its seeds are so precious they are kept at the seed bank in Kew Gardens so that it never becomes extinct. The seeds we use in our blend were harvested from
plants grown in the Alameda Gardens and sold to us originally by the head gardener there at the time. Campion gin was voted one of the best gins in the world in the 2020 World Gin Awards. Unique in every sense of the word.

2020
Onwards and Upwards! After surviving the pandemic and having been in the privileged position of being able to produce hand sanitiser for the local health authority, we were grateful to be back on track. It felt good to be able to help and do our civic duty (for cost not profit we hasten to add), and we did get a thank you letter from the Chief Minister and a Christmas card too. Joyfully we are back to making our lovely spirits and the distillery is once again full of the delicious smells of distillation and botanicals and the happy laughter of visitors.

The Gibraltar Gin Experience and our nod to the historic! Just Juniper, Jaco, Plymouth Style and Old Tom are blends that were developed to help show, in the best way possible (by tasting),how gin has evolved over the centuries to become what it is today. By popular demand these gins are also available to buy. The experience is fun, informative, great value for money and has excellent reviews.

2021
Candytuft (Iberis gibraltarica) our second premium gin launched in December 2021. A New Western Dry gin with summer notes of peaches and pink grapefruit. Named after Gibraltar’s national flower we discovered that this plant is actually indigenous to North Africa and Gibraltar is he only place it grows on mainland Europe. Because of Gibraltar’s limestone composition it is geologically similar to North Africa rather than Spain. Both Campion and Candytuft can be found at the Alameda Gardens, a beautiful oasis of calm in the hubbub that is Gibraltar.

2022
The Airport Shop. February 2022 saw the opening of our shop in the departure lounge of
Gibraltar International Airport. Not many, if any distilleries can boast of a location such as this. Feel free to pop in and say hello, and if you haven’t tried our spirits before, come and have a taste.

Company ethos
From the outset we have felt it important to bring sustainability and our impact on the environment to the fore. Our packaging is either refillable, returnable, recyclable or reusable and often all four apply. You will notice we don’t have excess packaging but what we do offer is of the highest quality with simplicity of design. We recycle our cooling water saving over 500,000 litres per year. We use an e-bike (Little Owl) as our company vehicle for deliveries, collections and pop up events and can highly recommend this means of transport to others. We value like minded businesses and you will find our spirits in select bars, shops and restaurants.

Return an empty 50/70cl Spirit of the Rock bottle to the distillery and get a substantial
discount off your next similar sized purchase.