
One of the Co-Founders of Valentia island Vermouth, Orla Snook O’Carroll was delighted to talk to Sarah Gill from Image magazine on her life in food. From early memories of birthday cakes her Mom would make for her and her sister, to her beekeeping father’s honey on everything, to making a global vermouth brand from Valentia Island.
Anna and Orla O’Carroll are the wife and wife team behind Ireland’s first vermouth company, Valentia Island Vermouth. Having met at art school in Bristol, the pair moved to their little cottage on Valentia Island off the coast of Kerry in 2018, tying the knot at the lighthouse.
Orla, originally from Greystones, first set foot on Valentia when she was a youngster as her father is a beekeeper. His knowledge of local plants was passed down for the making of this unique vermouth, which serves as an ode to the island, to love and to nature.
Launching back in 2021, Valentia Island Vermouth is award-winning, handcrafted vermouth that uses twenty botanicals including gorse from the island, a deep dark caramel, and a Verdejo grape from the Rueda Valley near Madrid.

Photography by Joleen Cronin and Ruth Medjber