Kyrö Distillery Company

Kyrö Distillery Company was registered as Rye Rye Osakeyhtiö by Miika Lipiäinen, Mikko Koskinen, Kalle Valkonen, Miko Heinilä and Jouni Ritola on 29 August 2012 in Isokyrö, Finland. Reportedly, the idea to establish the company came to the founders while they were sitting in a sauna drinking American rye whisky; they wondered about the lack of whisky distilleries based on rye in Finland—an ingredient they considered vital to Finnish society.[2][3] The founders had no experience in the distilling industry and visited micro-distilleries and still makers around Europe to gather knowledge.[4] The distillery itself was built next to the River Kyrö in a 1908-built cheese factory which used to produce Finnish Oltermanni cheese.[5][6]

Helsinki-based design agency Werklig created a visual identity for the company, including a custom typeface called Napue Sans based on memorial engravings of the 1714 Battle of Napue fought close to the distillery's location during the Great Northern War. The typeface is used in all of Kyrö's products and media including its logo.[5][6][7] The revenue of Kyrö Distillery increased from 2.4 thousand euros in 2014 to 3.6 million euros in 2016 and its operating income from negative to 677 thousand euros, respectively.[1] It exported to 15 countries in 2015.[4]

A 50 cl (17 US fl oz) bottle of Napue rye gin with the custom typeface based on engravings of the Battle of Napue[6]

Kyrö Distillery distills whiskey, gin and other spirits from 100% whole-grain rye in regular and small batches at its distillery in Isokyrö with a 1200-litre copper still. At first, Kyrö was supposed to produce solely rye whiskey, but instead started with gin due to the minimum three years that single malt whisky is to be aged under European Union regulations, thus enabling the company to generate revenue from gin while waiting for the whiskey to mature. For gin products, the rye spirit is used as a base with different herbs added to it. Due to the short summer in Finland, the staff distills individual botanical concentrates from locally foraged herbs in order to produce gin year-round.[2][4][5]

The distillery produces rye spirits with different recipes, such as Napue, Koskue, Juuri and Long Kyrö.[8] Napue rye gin is Kyrö's flagship product, which began production in 2014 and is named after the Battle of Napue. A gin and tonic made with Napue won the Best Gin for Gin and Tonic category at the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) in February 2015.[9][4] Following the award, Napue's production increased from the previously planned 23,000 bottles to 100,000 bottles in 2015.[5][10] As of 2017, 600,000 bottles of Napue are produced per year and exported to over 40 countries.[2]

Reportedly, it took a few months of trial and error to tune the recipe of the 46% alcohol by volume Napue. Sixteen different herbs are used to make Napue, including juniper, lemon peel, angelica and cardamom as well as locally foraged meadowsweet, cranberries, birch and sea buckthorn. Four of the herbs are individually distilled and mixed in with the other twelve to ensure a consistent outcome.[2][4][11] The traditional Napue gin and tonic recipe that won at the IWSC is served with a Fever-Tree Indian Tonic Water, cranberries and rosemary.[12]

Koskue is a rye gin made by adding black pepper, orange peel, birch and cranberries to a base rye spirit aged for three months in a medium-charred American oak barrel.[2][11] Juuri ("root") is an unaged rye whisky, which began production in 2014.[13][14] Additionally, Kyrö produces small batch experiments developed by external beverage experts under the Kyrö Study label, such as the Smoke & Rye spirit[15]—and since 2016 together with Finnish brewery Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas, a cranberry long drink called Long Kyrö (a pun on lonkero) with Napue gin as its base.[16]

• In 2015, A gin and tonic made with Napue rye gin was the awarded Best Gin for the Gin and Tonic category at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.[9][4]
• In 2015, Kyrö won second place in the Spirits category of the Dieline Awards for package design and was shortlisted for the Cannes Lions' Premium Packaging category.[17][18][19]
• In 2016, Napue rye gin was given a gold medal in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition's premium gin series.[20]
• In 2016, The Spirits Business magazine awarded the company with a "Master medal" in the Digital & Social Media category in its Distillery Masters competition, and gave the company gold medals in Distillery Facilities, Consumer Experience, and Distillery Innovation.[21]
• In 2016, Juuri unaged rye whisky won a gold medal in the Whisky category of the International Spirit Awards (ISW).[13][14]
• In 2017, Koskue rye gin won a gold medal in the San Francisco World Spirit Competition.[22]