Amber introduced me to a 300-year-old mango tree and, with a mischievous grin, invited me to rub her lemongrass and give her pods a squeeze. Then she offered me her Bwa Deb to smell. Her calabash gourds, however, were strictly off-limits.
“We grow three varieties of West Indies Bay,” she tells me. “‘Anisette,’ with its whisper of licorice; Lemon Bay; and the most famous, ‘Bwa Den.’ Give it a sniff—you’ll be surprised by its complexity. Clove, allspice… It’s what anchors our Signature Gin.”
Amber Oxley grew up in the San Jose Bay Area. Today, she gives tours of paradise.
Together with her partner, Simon—an English-born freelance TV producer—Amber runs Sea Cliff Gin and Eco Cottages at Point Dubique, Calibishie, on the northeast coast of Dominica, the Windward Island Columbus sighted in 1493. The family arrived in 2021, drawn to the island known simply as “The Nature Island.”
“We’re the only gin distillery in the Caribbean that offers accommodation,” Amber says proudly. She recently launched a ready-to-drink Butterfly Lime Gin Cocktail, a garden-to-glass creation that mixes local limes with Butterfly Pea Flower, which turns the gin a regal shade of purple. Orders, unsurprisingly, are pouring in.
The Sea Cliff Micro Distillery sits alongside five solar-powered ocean and mountain-view cottages. Guests can book the couple’s much-loved Gin Botanicals Trail, where signs in Kwéyòl lead you through Citwonel (lemongrass), Canne (sugarcane), and Canel (cinnamon)—all destined for Amber’s gin basket during vapor infusion.
“You’re welcome to pick the leaves and crush them to release their aroma,” Simon says as we wander past ylang-ylang, bamboo swaying like metronomes, cocoa pods glowing under the canopy, and nutmeg trees heavy with spice. There are mature breadfruit, soursop, and calabash trees, whose gourds the Kalinago still carve into bowls.
Simon’s résumé is as eclectic as Dominica’s landscape. He’s worked on shows like American Gypsies for National Geographic, Chef Roblé for Bravo, and Too Cute for Animal Planet. His childhood zigzagged between North Wales and Staffordshire before he studied English at Oxford and found his footing at Nickelodeon, MTV, and the BBC. His work took him back to Malawi for a Blue Peter special on children affected by HIV/AIDS. He met Amber while she was studying fashion at Central Saint Martins.
Their story includes a wedding at the mansion used in the film Atonement, years living in Hackney while Amber designed knitwear for Mark Fast and Bella Freud, and a later move to New York—first the East Village, then Dumbo, then Greenpoint—while raising two boys and navigating creative careers. Amber designed for Zac Posen, Club Monaco, and Bonobos; Simon produced for Bravo, Nat Geo, and Animal Planet.
Then came Dominica.
“We read about this mysterious ‘Nature Island’ we’d never heard of,” Simon recalls. “During Covid, we spent two months here. Sea Cliff was for sale. And we pivoted. Something about the raw nature, the slower rhythm, the chance to be more present with our boys… it just felt right. We restored the cottages—and Amber ordered the juniper berries.”
The Caribbean is known for rum.
But gin? And made by a woman? That’s a rarity.
“We love gin, and we’d never seen a Caribbean botanical version before,” Amber says. “Inspired by local bush rums and bush teas, we wanted a Dominican gin. We imported a still, built a micro-distillery, took classes, and just started crafting.”
Gin is familiar to Dominicans, though rum is the reigning monarch. So when a group of French yachters arrived—expecting, as their guide told them, a “rum factory”—they were baffled to find a gin crafted in a Caribbean backyard by a woman with a botanical trail.
“We love Dominica,” Simon adds, gesturing toward the horizon. “Nine volcanoes, 365 rivers, eighteen named waterfalls, including our own Victoria Falls, the Emerald Pool—our Fountain of Youth—Champagne Beach with natural bubbles, black-sand beaches, sulphur springs, the Boiling Lake… all on an island just 29 miles long.”
There are parrots—like the rare sisserou Imperial Amazon—twenty species of whales, and views of French Martinique and Guadeloupe. Festivals, too: the World Creole Music Festival each October, Joune Chapo Pai Straw Hat Day, Independence Day, and the Mas Domnik Carnival.
Simon recommends a game of dominoes at Toto’s Bar, a meal at Nets of Reef or Sandbar Love at First Bite, and a sunset at Toga and Caroll’s. And don’t miss the view from Scott’s Head, where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea.
Amber smiles. “If you come to Dominica, you’ll find the island is wonderfully colorful and welcoming. We even have a beach with its own chocolate factory—Pointe Baptiste.”
She laughs.
“Ancient Wai’tu kubuli always has surprises.
Not just it’s gin.”
