Anna and Orla Snook O’Carroll are the creators of Ór Valentia Island Vermouth– the first ever Irish-made vermouth. Fionnuala Carolan spoke to the couple about how they utilised the beautiful natural habitat of this Kerry island to create their unique product and hears of their ambitious export plans for the brand
We had the pleasure of meeting with Fionnuala Carolan and talking to her about all things Valentia Island and vermouth for the most recent issue of Drinks Industry Ireland. We met her while at the delicious Suesey St restaurant while we were accepting (whoop!) the Irish Drinks Guild of Food Writers Award in Dublin. She was really easy to talk to and it felt like we had met a pal.
“I’ve been coming to Kerry since I was six weeks old,” explains Orla. “It felt natural to go back there. We moved into the tiniest little cottage and it literally is just like the house scooped us up. Our lives have changed exponentially for the better for living there. It is absolutely phenomenal.”
We are currently working towards launching into the States later this year targeting Washington DC first and then New York City.
“I think we’re very aware that Ireland has been really good to us. And we have a lot more to do here too but there’s five million people in Ireland and say in the state of Texas alone, there’s 25 million. That’s a lot of scope. You can now make an all Ireland Manhattan, an all Irish Martini, all Irish Negroni and you could not do that before. So we are bringing that information to the US and using it as a unique selling point and targeting all those Irish bars,” explains Orla.
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