The Ageing Project

Wrecking Coast Rye is here. The first casks of Cornish rye have been laid down, and the German inspiration is available for you to taste while it develops.

But it doesn’t end there.

Over the coming months and years, experiments will continue. Casks of rum and Muscovado Spirit are getting ready for bottling, and we have German rye back in wood, giving us insight into how our own rye will develop down the line.

Join us on the journey to our own Wrecking Coast Rye as we develop new spirits and see how ageing changes the flavours we create when we brew and distil. The Wrecking Coast Ageing project is in full swing and we have a whole host of surprises up our sleeves.

What would a German rye whiskey finished in a Cornish rum cask taste like…?

Not ours, but still ours

We don’t claim to be doing anything new at The Wrecking Coast Distillery. What we are doing is taking the knowledge of drinks makers from around the world over the centuries and bringing it all together in ways that will let us create something that’s uniquely ours.

We aren’t the only people making spirits, but we are the only ones making OUR spirits.

Whether it’s the whiskey that has inspired us to make our own – distilled in Germany and then further developed at The Wrecking Coast Distillery – or our own Wrecking Coast Clotted Cream Gin – first created in the basement under a bakery in Tintagel – everything we make is unique to us and has one thing in common: they’re what we want to drink.

The Ageing Experiments

August 2021

Inspirational Rye

The starting point – we were looking for a rye that had the flavours we wanted to make, so we had a benchmark to start from. This rye has that balance of sweetness and spice, with some extra depth from its time finishing in sherry casks. The perfect inspiration for our own whiskey.

October 2021

Bourbon-finished Rye

The Bourbon Sandwich – our rye has spent time in a sherry cask but how will it change with some more time in a bourbon cask, this time in Cornwall, like our own rye will be matured in the future?

Cornish Cyder Brandy

Waste nothing – when our friends at Polgoon, makers of great cider and wine, told us about a batch of their artisan cider that didn’t quite have the profile they wanted, we jumped at the chance to turn it into something special. A small test distillation showed that the cider made excellent spirit, and we started full production: 2,500 litres of cider, double distilled to produce just 200 litres of spirit. It came off the still at 56% ABV, relatively low strength and packed with flavour, and we reduced it to 50% before ageing in ex-bourbon casks for 7 months. We then transferred the brandy to a stainless-steel tank to allow it to rest while we slowly brought the strength down to 40% – our perfect drinking strength – with Cornish spring water. It has been bottled with no further messing about, a pure expression of Polgoon’s orchards.