I visited the Kilted Dragon Distillery on Springvale Industrial Estate earlier today to take a look around and hear more about their tours and spirit‑making experiences
Cwmbran residents Jamie and Marie Boycott opened the business last year. They produce a range of spirits including vodka, gin and rum. Their unit also features an events room on a mezzanine floor, complete with a bar and large glass windows overlooking the distillery below.
Marie said: “This year is building on the success of last year. It was quite short [the year as] we only opened at the end of October. It’s about our visibility now and increasing that and also bringing new drinks to market, making sure people know we are here and that they can do the kinds of events like make the gins, and rums and stuff so it makes it a place in our area to come and enjoy.”
Jamie added: “It’s something different and fun. We are opened up now, so we’ve got quite a few events going on. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves that are going to be revealed over the next couple of weeks, so yes, the future is really bright.
“The room upstairs is the events space. You can come in and make your own rums and gins.
“You can do cocktail masterclasses, that kind of stuff. Really fun. It’s a real safe place.”
Couples have booked the venue to make their own spirits for wedding favours.
‘Something different’
Jamie said: “There is not a lot of ‘experiences’ that you can have around our town, so I think it is something different. It’s something nice to do with a group of friends. We did sell quite a lot of vouchers over Christmas so we’re starting to get more coming in.
“Also hopefully, I think it’ll be a bit of a tourist attraction because we have had, when we were fitting out, we had a few Americans pop in just because they like they think Britain makes alcohol better than the Americans, so they like to come in and see how we do it.”
Where is Kilted Dragon Distillery?
The distillery is at 119 Springvale Industrial Estate, Cwmbran NP44 5BG