Food & Farming page catches up with Tiffany Kerruish at the Fynoderee Distillery and discovers that sanitisers aren’t the only new products on their radar this year.

It’s been an interesting year for us, as it has for everyone, says Tiffany, who owns and runs Fynoderee with her husband Paul.

Having launched a successful range of premium spirits, five gins and a vodka, all flavoured with various hand-foraged Manx botanicals, they started the year overseeing building work on the new Ramsey premises they planned to open at TT.

‘We started the year with high hopes for the launch then work ground to a halt because of the coronavirus but it has started again and we’re hoping for autumn,’ she says.

And, in a curious twist of fate, the coronavirus brought with it a business opportunity that no one could have foreseen, as Tiffany explains: ‘We get quite a lot of industry press and I started to notice a growing trend in the States for small distilleries to pivot their business to sanitiser. It was in the back of my mind as things started to deteriorate and then people started asking for it.

‘At the start of lockdown on the Isle of Man stocks were very low – even the hospital was getting very low and we had to get to it very quickly. It meant very long days and it was quite stressful.’

There are regulatory requirements for products such as sanitisers which claim to ‘kill germs’ and Tiffany says: ‘It would normally take months to get a new product like this approved but the health service and trading standards were very helpful and we followed World Health Organisation advice very carefully.’

And so a new ‘business within a business’ was launched and Fynitiser went into production at the distillery. Tiffany says: ‘When we first launched we gave away the first two batches, around 600 litres, to the hospital and care homes.

‘We have been in fairly constant production since then and it has enabled us as a business to plug the hole and also fulfil a need the Isle of Man had.

‘Since then we have produced about 8,000 litres and there still seems to be a considerable demand.

‘We have now invested in kit and a stock of ingredients in case we need to up the ante once more. In case of a second spike, it’s an insurance policy for the island, which we hope won’t be necessary.’

In fact, Tiffany would be quite happy to return to putting all the alcohol they distil back into their premium spirits.

She says: ‘I hope we can get to a point where we can mothball sanitiser. It was never our intention to do this as a business and it’s not where our passion lies.’

Their gins, apart from the Kerala Chai Gin which was created in collaboration with Kumar Menon from Leela’s Spices specifically for pairing with Indian and Asian cuisine, are flavoured according to the seasons. Tiffany and Paul, along with their children, Amelie, seven, and Theo, five, have been out and about recently gathering gorse flowers, buckets and buckets of them, to flavour next year’s Spring Edition Gin.

‘We literally do pick all the Manx elements – it’s not just a token,’ says Tiffany.

All the gorse flowers are frozen as soon as possible after picking. Because there are so many they are being stored in Ramsey Bakery’s large freezers until the time comes for them to go into the still.

‘We tried drying them but it didn’t work: freezing them keeps all the flavour and aroma in,’ says Tiffany.

Their Summer Edition Gin uses strawberries for flavouring: ‘We are working with Ballanelson Farm so we have a break then because they do the picking for us,’ she adds.

Then it will be out foraging again, this time for rowanberries, blackberries, elderberries and sloes and ‘heather which lends a tiny honey note’, to go into their Autumn and Winter Edition Gins.

Sales of their spirits have held up well during lockdown, with a big spike in their online sales as their free postage offer has seen many customers enjoying having their gins and vodka delivered to their doors.

Lockdown for Tiffany meant Paul being at the distillery while she was at home with Amelie and Theo, doing all the administrative work for the business. How did she cope? ‘There’s been a lot of trampolining and ice cream,’ she admits.

The family has also been out checking on the crop of Manx barley which Pentti Christian has been growing for Fynoderee’s newest product. It will be harvested and sent across for malting as the Kerruishs have plans to start producing a premium Manx whisky.

But don’t expect it to be on the shelves anytime soon: it will have to sit in casks and mature for several years.

‘It is a long-term project,’ says Tiffany and she goes on to explain some of the rules and regulations surrounding the production of malt whisky.

‘Only whisky made in Scotland can be called ‘Scotch’ and the Scotch Whisky Association has very strict rules on how the Scottish distilleries must produce their single malts and blends.

‘The Isle of Man doesn’t, yet, have a trade organisation like the SWA so we have no rules on production and maturation regulations for what Manx malt whisky should be. However, Scottish whisky is considered the best in the world for its high standards and we want Manx malt whisky to be just as revered.

‘The minimum cask ageing in Scotland is three years and one day before distilleries there can call their distilled spirit ‘whisky’.

‘On the Isle of Man, known for its three legs, three years and three days seems an appropriate minimum, although the actual length of time in the cask after this will be totally dependent on our master distiller’s discretion.’

She and Paul have done their research on what makes a good malt. They travelled around some of the small whisky-producing Scottish islands, visiting distilleries and sampling the product.

She says: ‘The Isle of Man has so much in common with these islands like Jura, Islay and Arran – the climate is so similar. It makes absolute sense for the Isle of Man to do it.’

Interestingly although Tiffany is a medically diagnosed coeliac and therefore unable to tolerate gluten, she is able to drink spirits distilled from wheat and barley, as she explains: ‘I am able to drink all grain based spirits because the act of distillation strips out all traces of the gluten protein.

‘Our products haven’t been officially tested for gluten so we can’t label them as gluten free and other coeliacs should take advice from their doctor or consult Coeliac UK if concerned. Sadly us coeliacs are not able to drink beer and ales as the brewing process does not remove the gluten.’

And, for all the island’s whisky lovers, she adds: ‘We’re looking forward to taking people on a fascinating journey with us as we harvest our first crops of Manx barley sown specially for the Fynoderee Distillery later this summer and start the process of creating the island’s first legally produced single Manx malt.’