It all began sometime in the 1850’s…
The details are murky, but family lore has it that my great-great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Wight, took over a failing whiskey distillery in the Hunt Valley, north of Baltimore, Maryland, sometime during the 1850’s and began producing Sherwood Rye Whiskey. He built the distillery up and in 1868 sold a controlling interest to Edward Hyatt. Around that same time, our families merged, and the distillery continued to grow to the point that in the late 1870’s the US Army was stockpiling Sherwood Rye Whiskey for medicinal purposes. Tastes were changing and Maryland rye whiskey was on the wrong side of the palate at the time, so while my great-grandfather tried to get another couple of distilleries going, they never really held on. When he died in 1958 the last Wight family distillery, the Cockeysville Distilling Company, shut its doors. Until now.
At New England Distilling we blend history and technology, with a little more history maybe. You see it in our art work, in our distillery and experience it in our products.
Our whiskeys, rum, and gin are distilled from grain grown in New England and the Midwest, our rum from Caribbean molasses, and we ferment our wash with yeast harvested from Maine Beer Company.
–Ned Wight, Owner/Distiller
New England Distilling
26 Evergreen Drive
Portland, ME 041013
(207) 878-9759
THE GUILDED TWENTY
