Month: September 2023

#32.2 Driving through Englandshire

A non-hiking tour in the Cotswolds

 

TL;DR: The second English distillery we hit on our way to Wales is a popular one, the Cotswolds. Producing also gin (and soon rum), their main whisky expression has been on the supermarkets’ shelves for a few years now. Their visitor centre and the experiences offered make it obvious that they mainly target tourists. 

(missed Part 1?)

We woke up in cloudy England, but because the camping was behind some fields the view was quite nice anyway. After a shower and a quick breakfast, we packed up our stuff and drove towards Stratford-upon-Avon: as we were so close, we felt like paying a visit to Willian Shakespeare birthplace (“shake spear” or “shakes pear”? The spear on the emblem suggests the former, but we want to believe!). The village is clearly a big tourist-trap, nonetheless, it’s a nice one, and we enjoyed a couple of hours walking around and checking out the market, although finding a pub open before noon was quite challenging (also because we avoid Wetherspoon like the plague).

  • Waking up gently…
  • …Before checking out Shakespear’s birthplace.

The Cotswolds distillery is only half hour away from the village, so the drive was quite quick. As we entered the gate to the parking lot, we realised how beautiful the setting is. Part of it is an old farm building (B-listed), where they have offices, the shop, a small restaurant and the tasting room. We were early, but it was calculated: we had a lunch there (well, Teresa, Gianluigi the second part of his, since it started with a slow-cooked pork sandwich at the market in Stratford…as he smelled it, he couldn’t say no). The food was quite tasty, in particular Gianluigi’s bacon and rocket focaccia.

  • B-listed buildings at Cotswolds Distillery.

We finished lunch just before starting the tour. Our guide was Charlotte, a nice Canadian lady who did a good job, just a tiny too theatrical for our taste (a result of the tour being geared towards tourists, we guess). The tour started with a video about the history of the distillery, funded by Dan Szor, an American from New York who used to work in investment banking. Motivated by the beauty of this part of England and by his love for whisky, he decided to build a distillery, which was completed in 2014. As many other new distilleries, in particular in England, they also produce gin, which ensured cash in during the first years. The gin production is located in a former barn attached to the visitor centre, where there are two columns stills for gin rectification (Lorelai and Dolly, the first for the experimental small batch products…yeah, as many others they like to name things), as they buy the neutral grain spirit. Some of their main botanicals are juniper (of course), coriander, bay leave and angelica.

  • Lorelei or Dolly? Can’t remember.

There is also the “old” single malt whisky equipment (mashtun, fermenters and two pot stills). At the time of our visit they were using it to produce rum (for which they bought molasses from the Caribbean), and the room was full of a funky tropical smell. After describing the distillery equipment, Charlotte left us some time to take pictures before moving to the new distillery. In fact, since January 2023 they increased production, and because the old distillery buildings are listed, they had to build a new one from scratch. It is just a few meters away, and it is brand new, very compact.

  • Huge stills in the new distillery!
  • Huge stills – take 2.

Here Charlotte explained the distillation process (remember it was a basic tour), before taking a walk on the catwalk around production and trying their newmake (very scotchy). The fermentation time is 96 hours generally, and their stills (Rosie the wash still and Fanny the spirit still) are quite big and dumpy, built on site by Forsyths. They are equipped with a steam coil at the bottom, and with tube-and-shell condensers (some of which are horizontal, we asked but it went unexplained). They take a cut at around 67.3% on average, and the cask filling strength is the industry standard of 63.5%. Interestingly, they made sure that the production was as similar as possible to the old plant with a combination of sensory and lab testing.

The other two buildings on site are the bottling plant, and the warehouse, where they stock a variety of casks (not a huge building, as most of them are not kept on site).

A wee warehouse on site…Not just single malts.

Then, time for the tasting, back at the visitor centre, inside a quite cozy tasting room. For non-drivers (Teresa today) the tasting consisted in small measures of a variety of expressions, including their main product, the Signature Single malt, an expression made with ex-bourbon and shaved-toasted-recharred casks (STR, for the record we also heard “stripped-toasted-recharred”), bottled at 46%, presented naturally (not-chill filtered nor artificially coloured). We had a bottle of this a couple of years ago, it is very good stuff, in particular considering the price (usually £30-40), and on the label they also provide interesting information like the batch size (our was 5,000 bottles) and the barley strain, Odyssey. The second drink was their main gin, but after that, everyone could go at the bar and ask to taste whatever (in small measures).

  • A wee taste of whisky and gin.

They have an interesting range of cask strength expressions, made in smaller batches (900-2,000-ish bottles) and all matured in the same type of cask. These are: ex-bourbon sherry, peated (ex-Laphroaig quarter casks) and the Founder’s choice (all STR casks), all priced between £60 and £70. They also have another expression called Reserve (bottled at 50%abv,), an annual release (Harvest Series, 52.5%, £100), a Banylus single-cask matured (55.1%, £95) and the bottle-your-own. At the time of visit it was a 4y single malt, ex-Port cask (62.8%abv) – £100/bottle, with no possibility to try it…probably someone went to Diageo’s school).

Steep price for a bottle-your-own.

Overall, it was a pleasant visit. A bit touristy maybe, of course tailored to a broad audience, given the vicinity to the park and other tourist attractions like Stratford. If we have to point to something missing, it would be an experience tailored to whisky drinkers to showcase their tasty malts without busting the bank. The only other available were the Whisky Blending Masterclass (£100, available a couple of times a month) and the Founder’s Tour (£60, but it looked like it wasn’t available at the time). However, the rather basic experience didn’t prevent us from enjoying some tasty whisky.

  • End-of-the-day rewards, driver’s drams!

Away from the distillery, we visited a little medieval village called Burford, and we then started driving to the real destination of our holiday: Wales! If you’re curious, stay tuned on the blog, as the Wales Whisky Trail will be here soon! Until then, slainte!

The Cotswolds Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 2 drinks (Cotswolds single malt and Cotswolds Gin) and a taste of the newmake, plus tastes on request from their range

Target: casual whisky drinkers and tourists

Value for money: good

Highlights: the range of malts

Distillery exclusive: bottle-your-own Cotswold Single Malt Port matured (62.8%, 4y, £99.95)

Recommended: if you’re not in the area, why not?

Link: https://www.cotswoldsdistillery.com/

#32.1 Driving through Englandshire

A peek into White Peak Distillery

 

TL;DR: On the road to Wales for our summer holidays, we drove through England, and we got to two distilleries: first of the two, White Peak. We had heard great things about their whisky, but had never tried. Our visit confirmed their good reputation, and we probably had the best distillery tour outside Scotland. 

The decision on where to go for our summer holidays was quite easy. First, we wanted to use the campervan for the first time for over a long weekend, but because of some mileage limitation on our insurance we couldn’t go too far, so here Ireland and Cornwall were not an option. Also, after our 2022 North of Scotland and Orkney trip, we definitely wanted to avoid midgies, so we excluded the West Coast of Scotland and Outer Hebrides too. Finally, we wanted to see something new: at this point, excluding the overpriced Lakes District, there was almost only one destination left: Wales! But to get to Wales, we’d need to cross a good chunk of the country south of the border, otherwise known as Englandshire.

Not too bad honestly, the recent world-wide whisky revamp touched England as well, and there are now over 40 distilleries on the English Whisky Map. Many of them are very young, and some were born as gin distilleries and only afterwards they switched to whisky. Others, however, are now quite established, with well-matured and tasty products. We already visited two, the Lakes Distillery, in Cumbria, and Copper Rivet, in Kent.

  • First distillery visit of the trip, yay!

Anyway, we left Edinburgh and, after a first stop in Leeds (to meet friends who recently became parents and their new-born kiddo), we drove straight to the first distillery we wanted to visit: White Peak. The distillery is in Derbyshire, near the Peaks District National Park, in Ambergate. It was funded by the Vaughn family, Max and Claire, in 2016, and their first single malt was released in February 2022. The chosen name for the whisky is Wireworks, because the distillery is located in a very beautiful former industrial estate on the river Derwent, a former wirework indeed! The industry complex dating back to 1876, closed in 1996: a lovely industrial revolution style building.

  • A charming industrial location (for those who like the genre).

We were very curious to visit this distillery. We had heard good things but we hadn’t had the chance to try this malt before, so here we go! Once there, we quickly checked in, but being early, we had time for a coffee and a stroll outside: a few meters away from the entrance they set up a nice summer garden, with lots of old industrial bits and bobs.

  • White Peak summer garden, such a lovely spot.

Back to the bar, we started our Warehouse Tour with Dave. He works there as a distillery manager and distiller, which was great as he gave us lots of insights! So, first off, he told us that although they make gin and rum too, the 90% of their business is the production of single malt. In contrast with the industrial revolution style budling, the equipment is very modern, and bar the stills, it looks like a modern brewery. They buy their malted barley from Crisp, and they then process it in a very modern brewing-style mill. This only applies to the unpeated malt however: the peated one, which constitutes 10% of their mash, is pre-milled. A thing in common with many distilleries is the use of three waters, from which they obtain a clear wort for a fruity character. The long fermentation, 6 days, is done with two types of yeast, dry distiller and brewer’s. The latter is live yeast from the Thornbridge brewery, in particular the one used to make the Jaipur IPA. This is both to provide a twist to their flavour, and to honour the Derbyshire brewing history.

The two wee stills.

Distillation is made in two small Scottish-style copper pot stills, and the usual cut points for the heart (ie what is kept from the second distillation) are 78% and 67%, quite wide indeed! They produce more or less 10 casks per week, mostly into ex-bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill or ex-wine shaved-toasted-recharred (STR) casks. They produce about 60,000 litres of alcohol per annum, putting them in the top 5 of English malt distilleries. After trying the newmake spirit, we moved to the warehouse, just next-door. Technically not a dunnage warehouse (the industrial building original floor is concrete), although the barrels are stored horizontally in a typical dunnage way. Their “angel share” (the percentage lost to evaporation) is about 10% over 3-4 years. David explained us their barrels policy, as we said, mostly ex-bourbon and STR, but with many exceptions: red-wine, Port, rum, virgin oak, etc, typical of young distilleries wanting to experiment. We also saw the casks for their next release, the Necessary Evil, in collaboration (again) with Thornbridge brewery. This year they used ex-PX casks which previously held stour beer. 

  • An almost dunnage warehouse.

Still in the warehouse, a table with empty glasses and benches was prepared for us, for the tasting! The first dram was the Caduro, released a few days before our visit, a marriage of ex-bourbon (33%) and STR casks (67%), bottled at 46.8%. It’s a lightly peated malt, quite fruity, sweet and very tasty. The other two samples were both from the cask, a 4yr-ish ex bourbon cask filled at around 72%, and a slightly older ex American oak cask (but with French oak ends) filled at 64.5%. We have to say that they were both delicious – a shame they weren’t on sale.

  • All is ready for the tasting…
…a very nice tasting.

Back to the shop, as the buying queue disappeared, we asked Dave if we could try their other release: the Alter Ego (51.5%). For this, the cask make-up is similar to Caduro, but inverted (33% STR and 67% ex-bourbon barrels), and with different cut points too. It was tasty as well, but we felt that the Caduro was a bit more balanced.

The day finished with us driving towards Stratford-upon-Avon to get to the camping, to rest and get ready for another day and another distillery visit. Overall, the visit to White Peak was a great experience, probably one of the best we had recently, and for a very reasonable price. Of course, Dave was excellent, and as we said many times, doing the tour with a person involved in production is often more engaging.

Until next time, slainte!

White Peak Distillery Warehouse Tour

Price: £40.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 drams, single cask ex-bourbon cask (4yr, filling strength 72%), single cask STR American oak cask with French oak ends (around 4.5yr, filling strength 63.5%), Caduro (46.8%abv), all not chill filtered and natural colour, and a complimentary glencairn

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: good

Highlights: the industrial site and the nerdy tour

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.whitepeakdistillery.co.uk/