Coles Distillery is located in South Wales at the White Hart Inn, Llanddarog, Carmarthen. The White Hart Inn is a family run pub and has their own brewery as well as the distillery. Coles Distillery uses a log of custom designed equipment and is contained in a very small area; the custom equipment is key to this as the equipment has been designed to fit the available space.
As well as whisky, they also make rum, vodka, gin, brandy and a few other spirits.
The tour is given by one of the family who was behind the creation of the distillery. There is obviously a lot of passion and pride behind the distillery and this shone through in the tour. This was easily one of the best tours I have been on (and if my count is correct, the 117^th distillery I’ve toured).
The history and process are both comprehensively covered and you get every opportunity for a close up look at the distillery.
The tour of the distillery takes about an hour after which you’re taken into the bar to sample the spirits. I sampled four rums (white, gold, spiced and dark), a vodka and some brandy (I could have sampled the gin too, but I don’t really like gin). The sampling and talking took another hour, after which I went and had lunch in the bar.
With the distillery being family owned, they are in total control of how they produce spirits and what processes they follow. The distillery is the decision of the family and it is the family who decides when it expands and how and there are plans they have for the future.
Even if you don’t have time for the tour, I’d recommend visiting th White Hart Inn for food. Well priced, large portions and really good.
Tour wise, I’d give this distillery tour a ¹⁰/₁₀ and it is definitely on my list for a return visit in future.