With Garden Gin, Chester County’s Award-Winning Distillery Is Poised For International Growth

by Melissa Jacobs

Cheers to this: Revivalist, the award-winning distillery based in Elverson, PA, just launched a new gin and is posed to expand its sales throughout the U.S. and around the world.

The company formerly known as Brandywine Branch Distillery is now called Botanery Barn, a nod to the all-natural, botanical ingredients infused into its gins and bourbons. The new name is part of an expansion plan that was two years in the making, explained Scott Avellino, who owns the company with his brother Don. “Botanery is a word we created that combines ‘botanicals’ and ‘distillery’ and speaks to what defines our gins and bourbons,” Scott said.

“We think it’s a better brand name because people outside of our area don’t really know what Brandywine is,” Don added. “And it could be confusing because we don’t make brandy or wine.”

So, Botanery Barn is now the umbrella brand for the company’s Revivalist Gin and Resurgent Botanical Whiskeys, which will retain their names. The company will remain at its distillery in its 150-year old barn in Elverson, scaling up production as demand increases in different markets around the world.

“We can make at least 50-60,000 cases of gin per year in our current location,” Scott said. “That’s a lot of gin, and we have no plans to relocate. We will grow intelligently and be able to fulfill those orders.”

For now, those orders will be for one gin in particular: Revivalist Garden Gin. The new gin was created specifically to go into national and international markets. “We’ll continue to sell our other products locally in Pennsylvania, but Garden Gin is the one we’re launching to the rest of the world,” Don explained.

Garden Gin’s name speaks to its botanical formulation, which has been the basis of Botany Barn’s spirits since the company was founded in 2016. But “botanical” has become an adjective used by a number of big brands, even if their spirits contain added sugar and artificial flavorings.

Botany Barn doesn’t do that, and the Avellino brothers believe their all-natural product will be their competitive edge in the crowded alcohol market. To that end, they are using the term “ethnobotanical” to clearly define the quality of their ingredients.

“Garden Gin is made with botanical ingredients, not just flavored with them,” Don said. “Our target market is people who care about the ingredients they put into their body and look for holistic, healthy-leaning products. It’s still alcohol, of course, but it is made with intention and great ingredients. We believe Garden Gin will appeal to discerning spirits drinkers.”

Also: It is delicious. More complex and interesting than traditionally juniper-heavy gin, Garden Gin has floral, citrus and herbal notes. It is made with rose petals, rose hips, ashwagandha, lemon verbena, plum – and hemp. “Hemp seeds, to be exact and they do not contain CBD,” Scott said. “Hemp seeds give the gin a nutty quality and velvet mouth feel. It’s one of the back-up singers that makes the melody better.”

Garden Gin’s bottle is as gorgeous as its flavors. Made in emerald green that symbolize its natural aspects, the bottle was created by Sandstrom Partners, the Oregon company behind the designs for Aviation Gin, St. Germain liqueur and other iconic visual brands. The Avellino brothers worked with Sandstrom for two years to perfect Garden Gin’s branding and bottle. “It’s a premium bottle for a premium gin in a premium market,” Scott said.

The bottle certainly stands out on a bar and will appeal to the luxury market of discerning spirits drinkers. With all of the pieces of their expansion puzzle in place, the Avellino brothers are now in talks with alcohol distributors around the world. How fast Botany Barn expands depends on those relationships and a host of other factors, but the brothers believe that  Garden Gin will quickly make its way into bars, restaurants and stores around the world.

They are already planning their next expansion. In 2024, Botany Barn will introduce new branding for its coffee bean-chicory root whiskey and its sarsaparilla-cherry bark-licorice root whiskey. Shortly thereafter, those whiskeys will also be launched internationally, making Botanery Barn one of the world’s premium, all-natural distillers.

For more information, visit Botanery Barn and Garden Gin.

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Want to read more about PA wines and spirits? Check out the Top 10 PA Wines of 2023 and Grace Winery’s Gracie Red, and Six PA Rose Wines You’ll Love.