A Cwmbran couple are opening a distillery in the town, making a range of drinks including vodka, gin and rum.
Jamie and Marie Boycott have set up Kilted Dragon Distillery. Last night they held a tasting event for their friends and family, along with neighbouring business owners of their lab in the Springboard Innovation Centre in Llantarnam.
Jamie said: “We’re going to launch in two weeks and want to just see what people like. I’ve got my taste buds, I know what I like, but it’s about getting what other people like.
‘Penderyn casks’
“I’ve done pretty much a range for everybody. I’ve got a vodka, I’ve got a gin, I’ve got a rum, I’ve got an agave spirit, you can’t call that a Mexican tequila because it’s bottled in Wales, [and] aged in Penderyn casks, so it’s very much Welsh.
“And then my spiced rum is a mix of both Scotland and Wales, it’s got Welsh cake in it and I’ve got Scottish tablet, which is a crumbly fudge.
“There’s no such thing as negative feedback. If I’ve got to tweak things before launch, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
He joked: “I’ve invited a lot of my friends and family, they’re the best because they’re brutal.”
His brewing background started with a job at Magor Brewery in 2010, where he worked for the following 12 years.
He said: “Three years ago, I got sick of doing shift work. If you can make alcohol, you can make any alcohol, so I got into this and I absolutely love it.”
He’s also worked for two different distilleries.
Springvale Industrial Estate
In a few months, they plan to open a distillery for production and bottling in a unit on Springvale Industrial Estate.
Jamie said: “It doesn’t feel like work either, which is great. I’m so passionate about it, as you can probably tell. It’s awesome. When you’re working for someone else, you’re kind of limited, whereas here, I am the nutty professor. I make everything. You know, I can put glitter in drinks. I can make drinks change colour by adding different mixes.”
Marie said they had received support from Torfaen Council’s Food4Growth Team, Torfaen Business, and Business Wales.
Sinks have been installed in their unit at the SpringBoard to create a “lab environment” where they can invite customers in to discuss and create new recipes in small batches.
She said: “[The] signature spirits that we are releasing for taste today before launch are a vodka, a gin, a spiced rum, a silver and gold agave and a fusion agave.”
The couple sell their products business-to-business and the public can buy bottles through their website.
Marie said: “I’ve actually got a full-time job, so I do this in and around the side to support Jamie on the business side of things.
“We’ve been going to some events. We’re going [to an event] in a few weeks to Loch Lomond. We’re representing Wales there because we’ve got a Welsh and Scottish flair.
“Loch Lomond is really special to us because I used to live near there and that’s where he proposed to me, so as a good start to our business, that would be really cool.
“And we’ll be doing some events around Wales, so Llanyrafon Manor at Christmas, and some of the local places.
“We wanted an event space as well, so when we open the distillery, there will be an events space upstairs on a mezzanine level where people can create their own [spirits] and do cocktail masterclasses and things like to be a social experience.
The brand name is a nod to the couple’s birthplaces, as Marie was born in Paisley, Scotland, moving to Cwmbran at eight, and Jamie was born in Wales.
Visit Kilted Dragon Distillery’s website.