Da Mhile

Ceredigion’s Dà Mhìle Distillery has impressed the judges in the Best of Organic Market (BOOM) Awards with their Organic Single Malt Welsh Whisky, making it into the final three for the “Best of Organic Spirits” category.

The awards, run by leading organic certifier Soil Association Certification in partnership with headline sponsor Ocado, honour the brands, organisations and people behind the UK’s organic industry.

Food and drink products entered into the BOOM Awards are blind taste-tested by an all-star panel of judges which included 2024 BBC Masterchef winner Brin Pirathapan, Chef and Broadcaster Romy Gill, Food Writers and Chefs Xanthe Clay and Jenny Chandler, Food and Drink Expert and TV Presenter Andy Clarke, The Great British Bake Off Star and TV Presenter Briony May Williams and Food Writer and Blogger Shonette Laffy.

The finalists are being announced at a time when the UK’s organic market has not only shown exceptional growth, but is significantly outperforming non-organic. The market grew 7.3% in 2024 with total sales of £3.7bn, double what they were just 10 years ago (2014 – £1.86bn) according to Soil Association Certification’s Organic Market Report.  

Organic has seen continual growth because it answers consumers’ demands for health and sustainability, particularly with younger Gen Z consumers. Seven out of 10 shoppers say that they intentionally buy organic food and drink (Organic Research Centre, 2024).  

Welsh whisky has been given Protective Geographical Indication (PGI) Status since 2023, to guarantee and promote its authenticity, a protection previously awarded to Scotch and Irish whiskys. To be labelled “Welsh” the product must use 100% Welsh barley, 100% Welsh water and be produced in Wales during all stages, from brewing to bottling. There are now seven distilleries producing whisky in Wales.

Soil Association Certification Commercial and Marketing Director, Georgia Phillips said:

Dà Mhìle, whose single-malt Welsh whiskys and other organic spirits can be purchased from their online shop, or at various local shops, farmers markets and wine and spirit merchants, is going up against Nc’nean Organic Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Pothecary ‘Original’ Organic British Blended Gin to be crowned Best of Organic Spirits.

The Award winners will be announced at the BOOM Awards ceremony on Thursday, 10th July 2025 at Paintworks, Bristol, home of the Soil Association.

On 24 July 2023, Welsh Single Malt Whisky officially secured its place in the UK’s Geographical Indication (GI) scheme, marking a significant achievement for Dà Mhìle and the Welsh whisky industry. This designation not only protects the authenticity of Welsh whisky but also recognises the unique heritage and quality behind every bottle produced in Wales.

The UK GI scheme was introduced in 2021 following the UK’s departure from the EU, offering legal protection against imitation and misuse of products with a distinctive regional identity. For Dà Mhìle, achieving UKGI status reaffirms the distillery’s commitment to craftsmanship, quality, and authenticity. The whisky is made entirely from Welsh ingredients, with a key element being the water sourced from a borehole right here in our valley, ensuring a true taste of Wales in every sip.

Dà Mhìle joins a small but prestigious group of Welsh distilleries that have contributed to this historic achievement, alongside Penderyn and Coles Distillery. Together, these distilleries have elevated Welsh whisky to new heights, working collaboratively to preserve its integrity and unique profile.

Single Malt Welsh Whisky now stands as the 20th member of the Welsh GI family, alongside iconic products such as Anglesey Sea Salt PDO, PGI Welsh Lamb, PGI Welsh Beef, and Welsh Leeks PGI. This inclusion highlights the growing recognition of Welsh produce on a global scale, cementing Wales’ place as a source of exceptional food and drink.

John James Savage-Ontswedder, Director at Dà Mhìle, reflected on the journey:

Ioan Pearce, Dà Mhìle’s distiller, added his personal connection to the milestone:

This protected status not only acknowledges the authenticity of Welsh whisky but also bolsters its global reputation, leading to a surge in worldwide sales, especially among dedicated whisky collectors.

The recognition of Welsh Single Malt Whisky as a protected product under the UK GI scheme stands as a testament to the hard work, dedication, and pride of the distilleries that craft this unique spirit. As Wales continues to establish itself as a key player in the global food and drink arena, Welsh whisky is now officially part of its remarkable legacy.

We are thrilled to announce that our Dà Mhìle Organic Absinthe has been awarded the prestigious 3-star rating at the 2024 Great Taste Awards. Out of more than 14,000 entries, our absinthe stood out for its exceptional quality and flavour, earning a place among the finest products in the world. This recognition is a true testament to the craftsmanship, passion, and dedication that goes into each bottle we produce.

A Decade of Collaboration and Innovation

Our absinthe is the result of a decade-long journey, a labour of love that began with our founder, John Savage, and evolved into something truly special with the help of three incredibly talented French exchange students—Sebastien Claus, Etienne Boulanger, and Richard Ducret. Working alongside our head distiller, this team spent over 10 years perfecting the recipe, honing the balance of flavours to create what we believe is a unique and exceptional spirit.

Crafted at 69% ABV, our absinthe is both bold and complex, capturing the rich history of absinthe with a distinctly modern, organic twist. Each batch we produce is under 200 bottles, allowing us to focus on the small details that make all the difference in quality. Every bottle is made from the finest organic ingredients, ensuring the highest possible standards.

We are immensely proud to see this hard work recognised with such a prestigious award.

Why the Great Taste 3-Star Award Is So Special

The Great Taste Awards are known as the “Oscars” of the food and drink industry, and a 3-star rating is the highest honour a product can achieve. To put it into perspective, fewer than 2% of all entries earn this accolade, making it an incredibly rare and prestigious achievement. Our absinthe was blind-tasted by over 500 judges, including top chefs, food critics, and writers, who were impressed by its depth of flavour, balance, and overall quality.

Nigel Barden Heritage Award and Welsh Golden Fork Nominee

In addition to our 3-star win, we are also honoured to have been nominated for the Welsh Golden Fork Award and to have won the Nigel Barden Heritage Award. The Golden Fork is a major recognition in Welsh food and drink, celebrating the best that Wales has to offer. We take immense pride in representing our country on such a prestigious stage.

Winning the Nigel Barden Heritage Award is a particularly special moment for us. Nigel Barden is a renowned food and drink broadcaster with over 30 years of experience, known for his passion for quality and his championing of exceptional products. To have our absinthe recognised with an award bearing his name is a huge honour. Nigel’s long career includes time at BBC Radio, TV appearances, live consumer events, food festivals, and numerous judging roles, making this award a reflection of his deep understanding and love of great food and drink.

A Celebration of Organic and Small-Batch Craftsmanship

Our absinthe is not just a product; it is a reflection of our values as a distillery. Each batch is produced in small quantities of fewer than 200 bottles, ensuring we can give every step of the process the attention it deserves. From selecting organic ingredients to distillation and bottling, we carefully monitor every detail to maintain the highest quality.

For us, organic production is about more than just creating a clean and authentic product. It’s about supporting sustainable farming practices and doing our part to protect the environment. We believe that organic, responsibly sourced ingredients make for a better spirit—one that is not only delicious but also aligns with our values of sustainability and ethical production.

What This Win Means for Dà Mhìle

Winning a 3-star rating at the Great Taste Awards is a milestone for Dà Mhìle. It affirms our commitment to producing spirits of the highest quality and underscores the dedication of our entire team. We are incredibly proud of this achievement, which we believe will help us reach new customers who are looking for exceptional, organic spirits.

This recognition also strengthens our position within the craft distilling community, particularly in the organic spirits market. It will allow us to continue growing, bringing our products to new retailers and restaurants, while always staying true to the values that have guided us from the very beginning.

Looking to the Future

As we celebrate this fantastic win, we are already looking ahead. The recognition we’ve received at the Great Taste Awards, along with the Welsh Golden Fork nomination and Nigel Barden Heritage Award, motivates us to keep pushing boundaries. We will continue to innovate, create and refine our range of organic spirits, always striving to produce the very best.

Our absinthe is just one part of our story, and we are excited to share more of our journey with you in the months and years to come. We remain committed to delivering exceptional spirits that reflect the care, quality, and organic ethos that define Dà Mhìle.

Thank you for supporting us on this journey. Here’s to many more milestones together!

The last few weeks Dà Mhìle have been busy bottling Whisky. This year they are releasing a single cask single malt and, for the first time since 2018, a single grain.

The 2022 single malt organic Welsh Whisky has been matured in a first fill Madeira cask giving it a beautifully rounded pallet and smoothness beyond its years.

 The 2022 single grain organic Welsh Whisky has been part-aged in a peated ex-whisky cask and consequently, has a light peat flavour and beautifully rounded pallet.

Established in 1992, Dà Mhìle, commissioned the world’s first organic whisky. It was produced at Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown, Scotland, in order to celebrate the new millennium – hence the name Dà Mhìle which is Scots Gaelic for ‘two thousand’, ‘dwy fil’ in Welsh.

In 2012, Dà Mhìle, started distilling at Glynhynod Farm in Ceredigion, Wales, where it continues its proud heritage of producing unique single cask organic whiskies.

Their ethos is based on the pursuit of excellence and ensures that the level of detail and workmanship that goes into each barrel is second to none. Ceridwen is the name given to their hand-made, bespoke 300 litre copper still. It takes one week for Ceridwen to create enough magic potion to fill one barrel!

Like each year, Dà Mhìle expect their exceptional and highly sought after Dà Mhìle Whisky to sell out in the next few months. 

Their 2021 single cask release – yet again – won a Great Taste Star in this year’s awards. The Judges said: Well balanced in colour and a beautiful top note of gorgeously rich dark honey, with reminders of honeysuckle. We felt that the nose leads perfectly on to the palate which delivers the sweetness of the burnt caramel and honey.

This year’s Whisky is guaranteed the same quality, approachability and complexity of palette.

Visit: www.damhile.co.uk

Ceredigion and Wales’ only organic distillery has launched its latest release of organic, dark Welsh rum. The organic rum, wholly produced in Wales from organic molasses, has been years in the making and, after maturation in oak casks, has resulted in an amber nectar that the whole of Wales can be proud of. It has hints of dates, banana, vanilla and raisins and can be drank as a sipping rum or with a mixer.

For this rum expression, Dà Mhìle Distillery has partnered with the Cambrian Mountains Initiative. The Cambrian Mountains landscape continues to have some of the lowest light pollution in Wales. As a result, it’s a mecca for the ever-growing number of stargazers, astro-photographers and astronomers, who flock to the Cambrian Mountains Astro Trail to view  its dark skies. Here, they can gaze at the wonder of the numerous constellations including Ursa Major (known as The Plough), planets and meteors, as well as our own Galaxy, The Milky Way.

In a statement for the distillery, John Savage-Onstwedder, Dà Mhìle’s founder, says;

“After the success we have had with our organic gins and our first bottlings of organic Welsh whisky, which have now become collector’s items, we decided to add a rum to our ever-expanding range of organic spirits. Unlike other rum-based spirits, this authentic Welsh rum, is distilled, matured and bottled in Wales.

I believe that RUM is going to be the new GIN. And just like gin has been the most popular spirit for the past 10 years and will remain popular for a long time, rum is now definitely in the ascendancy and bound to take over in years to come. Therefore, we are delighted to be able to collaborate  with the Cambrian Mountains Initiative and be part of their exciting dark skies activities, and this is reflected in the design of the label and the name we have given our rum – DÀ MHÌLE DARK SKIES RUM.

The rum is a wonderful addition to some of the fantastic artisan food and drink products already being produced in The Cambrian Mountains, and I am sure that our rum will be appreciated by many a stargazer on a cold starry, starry night and by many other rum aficionados further afield.”

For more information: John Savage-Onstwedder (01239 851528)

The food and drinks industry has always been subjected to consumer trends. Most recent worldwide trends started with craft beers and has expanded into spirits with an explosion of craft gins. There are now hundreds of gin bars throughout the UK serving a multitude of craft gins.

Dà Mhìle Distillery in Ceredigion were pioneers of the current gin trend when they started distilling premium organic gins in 2012 and since then have been winning prestigious awards for both their botanical and seaweed gins.

Just recently they released their first cask of organic single malt Welsh whisky which has been enthusiastically received by whisky connoisseurs. And now, they have just released their first organic Welsh rum, celebrating the Patron Saint of Wales, St David, who’s festival is observed each year on the 1^st March.

John Savage-Onstwedder, Dà Mhìle Distillery’s founder, when asked; why Welsh rum? said:

“Demand for craft spirits is continuously increasing. Worldwide, in the past three years craft distilleries have been opening almost weekly and bringing out new gins. In 2012, Dà Mhìle was the first organic farmhouse distillery in the UK and quite innovative with its botanical and seaweed gin. RUM has been a spirit that we have wanted to add to our range for many years, but unlike many other rums in the UK we wanted to produce it from scratch, not buy it in from abroad and bottle it; our organic Welsh rum will be the first organic rum that is fermented and distilled here in Wales.

“This new edition to the range is a beautiful spirit, easy to drink straight or with a mixer. It has a warm sweetness on the nose, notes of molasses and raisin on the palate, finishing with hints of oak and vanilla.

“Consumer demand will not just be motivated by uniqueness and quality, but increasingly by environmental and sustainability issues. As the first organic farmhouse distillery in the UK, we are proud of our ecological stewardship. It bodes well for our future as consumers become increasingly aware of their own ecological and carbon footprint. Dà Mhìle Distillery is at the forefront of this critical development and with our rum we again hope to be ahead of the curve”.

Iechyd Da!

For further enquiries contact:
John-James Savage-Onstwedder
Dà Mhìle Distillery
contact@damhile.co.uk
www.damhile.co.uk

According to Mintel some 6.5million Great British consumers choose spirits and cocktails to accompany eating occasions. In the spirit of Christmas Food & Drink Wales have chosen 2 Welsh spirits, one of which being Dà Mhìle, to make the festive season extra special and to kick start a Visit Wales Year Of The Sea Campaign 2018.

Dà Mhìle Seaweed Gin 42% ABV –  from £6

The Dà Mhìle Distillery commissioned the world’s first organic whisky in 1992. Since then, they have expanded and they make a variety of organic spirits and liqueurs. This Seaweed Gin was launched on St David’s Day in 2014 and was designed to complement seafood and is infused with handpicked seaweed from the Celtic coast, giving it a lovely light green hue before being triple filtered and bottled. On the nose it’s very refreshing with a strong whoosh of lavender and citrus with notes of eucalyptus and pine.

Tuesday, September 27 was a historic day for Wales’ whisky industry and Dà Mhìle Distillery near Llandysul as it started bottling the first batch of organic Welsh whisky with local MP Mark Williams giving a helping hand with the labelling.

Once all the whisky has been bottled and labelled by Dà Mhìle Distillery, it will be ready for sale and Wales will officially become a nation with a whisky industry. For the past 20 years, Penderyn has been the nation’s only whisky distillery, which meant that Wales did not meet the requirements necessary to be accepted as having an industry.

The European Union’s alcohol regulations specifically state that a country has to have at least two distilleries making and marketing whisky to be recognised as having a whisky industry.

Dà Mhìle’s first organic whisky is also Wales’ first ever single grain whisky which has been maturing in oak casks for four years. The colour is amber and the taste is lightly peated, sweet vanilla.

John Savage-Onstwedder, the distillery’s founder, said:

“This very first limited edition is a whisky of the highest quality and bodes well for the future. For the past four years, we have been laying down more stocks and we look forward to 2019 when we will be launching our first single malt whisky. The future looks bright.”

Dà Mhìle is the first, fully organic farmhouse distillery in the UK to be given Soil Association status and has been making award-winning gins, liqueurs and whiskies since 2012.

For more information about Dà Mhìle Distillery visit: www.damhile.co.uk

Dà Mhìle, the first organic farmhouse distillery in Britain, has just achieved another world record price for a cask of whisky.

John Savage-Onstwedder, the distillery’s founder, commissioned Springbank distillery in Campbeltown, Scotland to distil the first organic whisky for him way back in 1992 to celebrate the new Millennium. He named it Dà Mhìle (pronounced DA-VEE- LAY), which is Gaelic for 2000.

On Wednesday 9 th August 2016 , 24 year-old CASK no. 240 has achieved a new world record price of £75,000 at Mulberry Auction House in Glasgow, smashing the world record price of £50,300 made earlier in the year at the SPINK auction house in Hong Kong for sister CASK no. 241.

When asked about this achievement John Savage-Onstwedder said:

“When this historic whisky was bottled in late 1999 to celebrate the new millennium, I predicted that one day Dà Mhìle could become the most expensive whisky in the world, but I had never imagined that this would happen in my lifetime. I had imagined that perhaps as a 40 or 50-year- old it would be the most expensive whisky to be sold in a bottle, but to become the most expensive organic whisky cask ever sold was completely beyond my expectations. My prediction of it one day becoming the most expensive whisky in a bottle has now come one step nearer and I am absolutely convinced that if my son John-James, the distillery manager at Dà Mhìle, lets one of these casks mature long enough then it will one day be the most expensive whisky in the world – in a bottle too.”

Dà Mhìle Distillery in Ceredigion, Wales makes world-class whisky, gin, and liqueurs. We built it about three years ago and we have already won several prestigious awards. The pursuit of excellence is written in our DNA and I have always said, “there is no point in producing mediocrity”. If you want to make a product, you have to give it your best shot.

In the past 2 years our Dà Mhìle Orange 33 liqueur has won 2 major awards: A True Taste and a Great Taste Award. Our Dà Mhìle Seaweed gin won a silver at the IWSC (International Wine & Spirits Competition), the most prestigious competition in the world where all products undergo blind tasting. We are really excited with this new world record and our work at the distillery. Especially as this year we will be bottling our first batch of organic Welsh whisky, which will be sold as a future. On that note, our future is not just GREEN but also very bright and soon we hope to put our organic Welsh whisky on the map.

For more information about Dà Mhìle Distillery visit: www.damhile.co.uk

A Carmarthen market family-owned business known for its innovative Welsh Seaweed Gin has been at it again – this time with a winter favourite, Sloe Gin.

Dà Mhìle Distillery which is the brainchild of John Savage-Onstwedder who also owns Caws Teifi Cheese, uses sloe berries from their own organic farm and foraged from neighbouring hills of Ceredigion to make this new festive spirit.

“We wanted to make an organic Welsh version of a winter classic,”

said distillery director John Savage-Onstwedder, whose passion for using Welsh ingredients to make only the highest quality products has lead to an impressive line of organic spirits including, Botanical and Seaweed Gin, Orange 33 Liquor, Apple Brandy and more which is available to buy at Carmarthen indoor market.

County Council executive board member responsible for markets in the county, Cllr David Jenkins, said:

“It’s always worth a visit to one of the markets in our county as they’re the ideal place to find unique, top quality produce such as this.”

Caws Teifi Cheese is open in Carmarthen Indoor Market from Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am-4.30pm.

For more information on traders and events in Carmarthen market, visit www.carmarthenshiremarkets.co.uk

For more information on Da Mhile Distillery please visit: www.damhile.co.uk