Wrecking Coast Gin Fine Dynamic Spirits

Tintagel, Cornwall, UK

Wrecking Coast Gin Fine Dynamic Spirits

The People

INSIDE THE SHED – AVIAN SANDERCOCK

Minder of the stills, conductor of experiments, flavour obsessive and chief geek. If you have drunk anything made by Wrecking Coast, you have Avian to thank for pressing the buttons, pulling the levers, shovelling ingredients, and probably for putting it in the bottle. He’s the one who’s slaved over a hot still to create the recipes for Wrecking Coast’s spirits, and he continues to tinker with them, in search of the next tasty thing.

OUTSIDE THE SHED – CRAIG PENN

Head salesman, arbiter of design, one-man online team and chief taste-tester. If you have held a bottle from Wrecking Coast in your hands, then you have Craig to thank for both how it looks and for extracting it from the Cornish countryside and getting it to you. When you drop the team a line or ping them a message on Facebook or anywhere else online, it’s Craig who’s behind the keyboard making sure you get the information you need.

IN THE BEGINNING

Buddies Avian and Craig have dabbled in drinks for years, although from the drinking side of the bar. Having lost his taste for beer, Craig turned to spirits, becoming a whiskey devotee. Avian soon joined him and, being analytical sorts, they spent many evenings carefully examining spirits to find out their favourites.

However, whiskey was temporarily put to one side when they discovered the world of craft gin. A pre-rugby match gin and tonic became the start of extensive gin research, as they turned their attentions to pulling apart the flavours in as many gins as they could, searching for their perfect bottle.

By this time, Avian had escaped from London and moved to Tintagel in Cornwall. Craig was still in North London and, having left the world of marketing, was looking for a new project. Travelling back and forth they continued to dig into the world of gin.

After one especially in-depth weekend of research, still without finding the elusive perfect bottle, Anita and Claire – Craig and Avian’s wives – challenged them to stop playing and actually get out and make the gin they wanted.

A few weeks later, a business plan, of sorts, was written.

MAKING GIN

Moving into the garage underneath a bakery in Tintagel, down the road from Avian’s house, they bought their first still and began to experiment. The plan was simple: bring together the flavours they loved in gin and make something they wanted to drink. Finally, after much taste-testing, and feedback and unexpected distilling advice from drinkers in the local pub, Wrecking Coast Clotted Cream Gin was born.

Growing slowly, they moved from the bakery to a long and thin room in nearby Delabole. When they outgrew that, they moved again to a bigger building, what is now The Wrecking Coast Distillery in Camelford. Once part of a chemical production facility, it still has a lab, where Avian continues to experiment, as well as more stills than before, a bottling line and some oak casks full of interesting spirits…

WHAT’S NEXT?

While gin had taken over their lives, whiskey was not far from Craig and Avian’s minds – still a tipple of choice when not drinking gin, they realised that maybe they could use their approach to creating a gin they liked, to whiskey.

With whiskey as an end goal, they started to experiment, developing the parts of the process they would need to get there, years down in the future.

First, they turned to brewing and rather diving straight into using grain, the base for whiskey, they went with something a bit simpler – sugar cane. First using richly flavoured Muscovado Spirit sugar and then dark and sticky molasses, they brewed and distilled a Muscovado Spirit and a rum. Breaking down the flavours produced and how they could be selected and concentrated through distillation started laying the groundwork for making their own grain spirit, and eventually whiskey.

Next they began to look at maturation – key to allowing whiskey to develop from a raw and unrefined new-make spirit or White Dog into the elegant and complex drink that Craig and Avian wanted to create. Adding pieces of wood to small batches of Muscovado Spirit and rum, led to filling small casks, and then larger casks, building on the knowledge gained as they scaled up. With the principles and logistics in place, it was time to plan the next step – actually making whiskey.

CLOTTED CREAM GIN 35CL

£37.95

The Wrecking Coast’s flagship gin, first distilled under a bakery in Tintagel. Its recipe is pepped up with a less common ingredient that’s one of Cornwall’s largest and most popular exports – clotted cream – cold distilled and combined with 12 traditional gin botanicals. The gin is not flavoured by the clotted cream, but it instead helps to amplify the botanicals and creates the rich texture of the spirit. The result is rich, oily and packed with ginny flavour.

BOTTLE SIZES

70cl, 35cl, 5cl

ABV

44%

TASTING NOTES

A rich gin that makes a spicy, citrus-forward Martini, or a classic gin & tonic. A gin shaped by clotted cream, not flavoured by it.

NOSE

Spicy and piney, with lots of juniper to start. There’s a touch of creamy butter in the background, with leafy pine needles joined by sweet liquorice, candied lemons and a soft floral grassiness.

PALATE

Sweet and spicy – spiced cake batter, rich with butter and freshly mixed. A squeeze of lemon cuts through the richness, followed by green leaves and a burst of peppery tarragon. Crunchy browning leaves and brown sugar round things out.

FINISH

Green leaves and piney juniper fade to leave soft spice.

WRECKING COAST SUMMER STRAWBERRY GIN

£37.95

SUMMER STRAWBERRY GIN HERO Wrecking Coast

A special edition, created for the summer and packed with the most summery of fruit: strawberries. After long experimentation, we have created a gin that’s run through with strawberry flavour as well as spicy juniper and sweet citrus. It’s all achieved through careful distillation, with no added sweeteners or flavourings, although we do add a touch of natural colouring to give the gin its flavour-enhancing pink hue – you may drink with your mouth, but you take your first taste with your eyes.

BODDINGTON’S BERRIES

Established in the 1940s as a market garden, Boddington’s Berries is now run by the third generation of the family and their strawberries are now accredits as ‘Product of Cornwall’.

Boddington’s now grow strawberries in three different areas (outdoors and under different types of cover) for the fresh fruit market – with fruit available from the end of April through to the end of July.

It is from these fresh strawberries that our Summer Strawberry Gin is made.