The KMDC Timeline
Our HistoryFrom humble beginnings to world beaters in 12 Years…
The very beginnings of our distilling journey. A chemist by trade, John Hall decides to resurrect an old Cornish gin recipe. He starts in the lab, testing, experimenting, and refining. 18 months later, the prototype Trevethan Gin is born.
2013
Stills: 1 Production capacity (l/per ann) : 104Late 2015, John moves to his first premises in Saltash, Cornwall. We have a single still, which produces 300l of our first gin.
2015
Stills: 1 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 17000
Trevethan Cornish Gin is released to market. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Sales start climbing quickly
2016
Stills: 1 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 17000
Demand for Trevethan grows rapidly. So we move to a bigger facility again. Year on year, we keep refining our gin. It starts winning medals, but gold eludes us. John begins testing maturation methods ready for darker spirits in the future.
2018
Stills: 2 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 34000
The spritz serve is becoming a big thing, but there’s no Cornish alternative to Aperol or Campari. So John invents one: Koneva, which literally means ‘Dinner Drink’ in Cornish. It’s a lower ABV aperatif made with cinchona bark and sweet orange peel. Natural apple, elderberry and cherry concentrate add a layered fruity flavour to offset the bitterness.
2019
Stills: 2 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 34000Trevethan wins its first gold medal at the prestigious IWSC. We also win UK Gin Producer of the Year.
2021
The turning point. We win Gold Medal Outstanding at the IWSC with, at the time, the highest score ever awarded: 98/100. This sparks the thought: how do we take this to the ultimate level? What does perfection actually taste like? How can we achieve it? A separate commission for a liquid based on the concept of luck provides the answer. And the catalyst for what will become John Hall’s next gin, Aureus Vita.
2022
Stills: 2 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 34000What’s the luckiest event in the Universe? Life. Luck and randomness are not the same thing though. There’s order underlying the chaos of nature. And often, at the heart of that order, is the Golden Ratio. John notices a pattern: as each iteration of his Trevethan Gin improved and gained higher scores, the closer the proportions of his botanicals adhered to the Golden Ratio. To find the perfect balance of flavour, he begins to apply the ratio to every stage of the gin process.
This year also marks two major events in the history of the distillery. We release our first ever small scale cask aged rum, after 2 years experimenting with cask maturation. And in October, we lay down the first ever cask of a soon to be ‘library’ of English whisky.
2023
Applying the Golden Ration to every stage of the gin process means designing an entirely new still from scratch. The patent-pending Fibonacci-Hall still is designed and built in Saltash. It’s the only one of its kind in the world.
2024
Stills: 3 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 65000
Aureus Vita is launched. It’s an entirely new type of gin. Weighing in at a hefty 61.8 ABV, it is noted for its smoothness, delicate complexity and extremely long finish. Mixologists love it. Due to its resilient flavour compounds, a little goes a long way, so it’s as good in a low-alcohol cocktail, as it is neat in a Martini. And who drinks gin neat? You can now. On its debut, Aureus Vita wins San Francisco World Spirits Awards Gold, and American Distillery Awards Gold, and American Distillery Awards Best in category. This is almost unheard of for a first release.
2025
Stills: 3 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 65000
10 years since the first Trevethan Gin bottle went on shop shelves, John Hall decides he wants to apply his learnings to all areas of distilling and ensure everything is kept in house, and under one roof, for all future liquids. His rigorous application of the scientific method releases creativity, and a sense of wonder at what’s possible with new flavours. Krengalla Meurth Distillery is formed as a centre of excellence for distilling. The Fibonacci still is rehoused in our new premises for Aureus Vita. A brand new still with massively increased capacity produces Trevethan. And a new copper pot still crafts our first collaboration with Vapoura Rum, released in July.
Aureus Vita wins IWSC Gold Outstanding with a score of 98/100. Our two leading gin brands are considered two of the best gins in the world. And our 2 x 5000L whisky stills now give us the biggest whisky production capacity in Devon and Cornwall.
2026
Stills: 4 Production capacity (l/ per ann): 150,000
2027+
Sometime in 2027, we’ll be releasing a selection of our very first quarter casks of 3 year old English whisky. Already, it tastes much smoother than any young whisky has a right to. We’re excited for its future.
Our goal over the next ten years is to take our world class gins to the rest of the world, help Vapoura become one of the world's leading spiced and cask aged rums and to build a library of English whisky that will make the category stand up and take notice. We will do it all in our new state-of-the-art facility and despite the equipment being bigger and more complex, our principles won’t change…
Liquid first.
