Vísi-Gísli Icelandic Aquavit

Vísi-Gísli is an Icelandic aquavit named after Gísli Magnússon (1621–1696), known as Vísi-Gísli, a seventeenth-century Icelandic scholar, magistrate and agricultural pioneer. The name has a direct connection with one of aquavit’s defining botanicals: Gísli is credited in Icelandic botanical sources with introducing and cultivating caraway in Iceland around the mid-seventeenth century.

The aquavit is made with Icelandic spring water and is bottled at 40% ABV in a 700 ml bottle. Its own label describes it as a smooth aquavit based on dill and caraway. A contemporary Icelandic hospitality source gives a broader botanical profile of dill, caraway, coriander, lime peel and thyme.

The label deliberately links the spirit with Gísli’s historical role in Icelandic cultivation. It notes that there is no evidence that Vísi-Gísli himself drank or distilled aquavit; the connection is therefore commemorative rather than a claim that the recipe dates from the seventeenth century.

The Vísi-Gísli trademark was filed in August 2017 and registered in October of that year. Icelandic state alcohol sales records document the product in 2018 and 2019. The trademark is currently registered to Glacier Spirits ehf., while the original 2017 registration listed Snioland ehf.