#55.5 All drams great and small

A distillery in Northumbria

TL; DR: Our Yorkshire trip had officially ended on Monday morning, but on the way back from Hunmanby to Edinburgh, we and other pals we did a further tour: Ad Gefrin distillery, in Northumberland! Production is aligned with that of Scottish distilleries, but the Northumbria history museum makes the distillery very local. Including the restaurant and bar, it is a great visitor attraction.

(missed Part 4/Part 3/Part 2/Part 1?)

For the last time, we woke up in sunny Yorkshire, inside our cosy campervan, Mr. Vantastic. The morning was fresh but not cold, we soon got dressed and went for breakfast at the Piebald Inn, where some of our pals were. It was time for our drive back to Leith, but not without a few stops on the long way home.

First, the coastal town of Whitby, a bit less than one hour drive from Hunmanby. A few people on the trip had recommended it to us, and it was indeed worthwhile. We didn’t have much time to explore the pretty town, so we just climbed the ‘199 Steps’ to get a scenic view of the harbour and the old town, before getting a quick lunch and a coffee. Soon after, we were back on the road towards our next destination: the final distillery of the trip.

Sunny Whitby.

The distillery is Ad Gefrin (meaning the Hill of the Goat…loved it!), in Northumberland, 20 minutes driving (14 miles) south from the Scottish border, in the town of Wooler. They started distilling in November 2022, and opened to public in March 2023. We’d heard of them a few years ago already, but didn’t manage to visit until now, so we were quite excited. We met at the distillery with other few people from the Edinburgh Whisky Group. We were a bit tight with time, the last ones to arrive, so we had just enough time to park and get a (another) coffee in the very nice bar and restaurant, before the tour started.

Our guide for the tour was Lesley, who showed us the museum on the first floor. This is a very fascinating aspect of the distillery, and a first for us: except some old distillery equipment (Glen Ord), company heritage (Aberfeldy) or copper mining (Penderyn Swansea) exhibitions, we never saw a distillery with a proper history museum.

A glimpse of the museum.

It hosts the collection of artefacts mostly from the Golden Age of Northumbria, when Gefrin was home of a Royal Palace, and it is possible to visit it for £10.00. Our knowledge of the troubled Britain history between the fall of the Roman empire and the arrival of William the Conqueror is foggy at best (and mostly due to The Last Kingdom TV show, ehm…), so for us it was quite interesting. It is linked to the Gefrin trust, which since 2002 is preserving and investigating the historical sites of Gefrin, first discovered in 1949. The whole project costed about £10m, and was partially funded by the local council. At the time of visit it had attracted over 70,000 visitors.

After a video and a few moments in the museum, it was time to check out production, literally behind a door from the exhibition. The distillery, which was set up in collaboration with Ben Murphy, the head distiller, now produces about 270,000 litres of pure alcohol per year. The water source is a borehole, while barley is sourced from four local farmers involved in the distillery business as well. These days, they mostly cultivate the Diablo variety for high yield, which is then sent to Simpsons for malting, in Berwick-upon-Tweed. They process about 25 tonnes of barley every three weeks, doing one mash per day. The malt is mostly unpeated, although before the winter holidays they run an 80% unpeated and 20% peated batch, with the peated barley at high phenols parts per million (ppm).

Grit, and how the distillery building looked like in the past.

The mashing-fermenting-distilling equipment is from Forsyths, in Rothes, Speyside. The mashing process starts with a run of 65°C water for about one hour, followed by a second run of water at 75°C: from the two they obtain about 5,000 litres of wort. The third water, at 85°C, is kept for the next mash. They currently have four washbacks, with plans to add another four. They use dried yeast, and fermentation lasts about 100 hours, resulting in a 8-9%abv wash.

The bottom of the washbacks, for once.

Similar to Scottish single malt distilleries, they have a pair of stills, a 5,000-litre wash still, from which they obtain about 2,800 litres of low wines, and a 3,500-litre spirit still. In the latter, they cut the head to 75% abv, and then the tails from 65% abv, obtaining 600 litres of newmake spirit. Casks are filled on site, at the standard strength of 63.5%abv, and the bottling plant is on site too. They also produce gin with a dedicated still (fortunately!).

Stills with a view.

After the tour of production we walked outside, to a nearby, very beautiful building. This used to be an old mill, now used for storage. We also checked out a warehouse hosting, among other things, about 200 privately owned barrels.

So nice outside too.

The cask owners wall.

Back at the visitor centre, it was time for the tasting with Gwen, another guide. First off, the Tacnbora, a blend of irish and Scottish malts and grain whisky, bottled at 42.7%abv, from Oloroso sherry, ex-Bourbon and American virgin oak barrels. It was sweet and drinkable, someone would call it a “breakfast” dram. It was followed by their Thirlings Dry Gin (43.4%) and Flýte Whisky Cream Liqueur (17%). It was a very enjoyable visit, and we liked the idea of this project: not just a distillery, but rather a wider hub for all types of visitors, with a restaurant/bar and the museum.

A very drinkable blend.

Overall, it was a very interesting trip, an eye-opener on what other whisky producers are doing in neighbouring countries. Production-wise, Ad Gefrin was the most akin to a typical Scottish distillery, following the same path that other English distilleries took, like White Peak, Cotswolds and the Lakes. On the contrary, it was exciting to see how the other distilleries we visited could take advantage of more relaxed rules. For example, both Spirit of Yorkshire and Ellers Farm use wash not produced on the same site as the distillery (for the second, even produced by another company), while also mixing column and pot distillation. Cooper King have only one still to run both distillations, something we never observed in Scottish distilleries so far.

However, the thing that most hit us was the amazing hospitality. That might be due to the need of making a name for themselves, which is not granted by a geographical denomination of their products, but still, in all places we felt welcomed and not took advantage of. We cannot recommend enough to get in touch with these distilleries.

Until next time, slainte!

Ad Gefrin Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Tacnbora (blended whisky, NAS, 42.7%, Batch 3); Thirlings Dry Gin (43.4%) and Flýte Whisky Cream Liqueur (17%)

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the Northumbria history museum

Recommended: yes

Link: https://adgefrin.co.uk/

#55.4 All drams great and small

A dram-y day at the Distillers Lounge, in Scarborough

TL; DR: On the (almost) final day of our trip we didn’t visit any whisky distillery, but a rum one. It is located inside the Distillers Lounge, in Scarborough, where we had a full-on English whisky tasting and a great meal, before turning our attention to rum. It was a very fun day, and we have to say the quality of English whisky is really improving!

(missed Part 3/Part 2/Part 1?)

On the Sunday morning, in spite of the very busy Saturday (two distillery tours, a brewery visit and the quiz), we woke up surprisingly rested. The morning was easy, we had breakfast in the van and a short stroll in Hunmanby, before gathering with the troop (except for some, who headed back home earlier) at the train station. Our destination was not far away: Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast. In our understanding, Scarborough used to be a popular seaside destination for rich people to clear their lungs during the Industrial Revolution, in particular around the Victorian era. Nowadays, it doesn’t look as glorious, with a lot of closed up units on the high street, we guess one of the many victims of the massive deindustrialisation of the 80s and 90s.

Now, one could ask: “What were you doing there, then?”, which is a more than legit question, given the above. Well, it’s easy: because of the Distiller’s Lounge. This is a venue, conveniently located at walking distance from the train station, with a restaurant, a tasting bar and a spiced rum distillery.

A wee distillery in the Distillers Lounge window.

The whisky tasting bar is managed by Whiskyside, a small company run by Matt, promoting and selling English whiskies. As you can guess, the plan was a full-on English single malt whisky tasting. The location was a room underneath the main bar, looking a lot like a cellar. There, the biggest collection of English whiskies we ever saw was on display. It included pretty much everything you could think of, from limited releases and from independent bottlers. We even spotted a Bimber bottled by the guys behind Whisky Facile, an Italian whisky review website and blog.

Don’t look at us, look at the shelves – an impressive collection.

The tasting started with a first for us, a Henstone single malt, from a distillery in the Shropshire (near the Welsh border) established in 2017. A young expression, but quite round despite the age, matured in ex-oloroso sherry casks. The second dram was an old acquaintance, the Cotswolds (visited in Summer 2023) Founder’s Choice, a small batch release (in this case 2,500 bottles), fully matured in STR casks (former wine casks, shaved, toasted and recharred). It comes from the Cotswold’s small batches of the same cask type, ranging from ex-bourbon to ex-sherry, ex-peated whisky, etc. A very nice dram, very drinkable, but it didn’t impress us, contrary to the one that followed. This was from Adnams, a brewery and distillery in Southwold, which we had tried one or twice before. This expression was a 9-year old bottled for Whiskyside, bottled at 55%, part of their Explorers Series. The combination of casks is quite unusual: matured in second-fill French oak casks, and then finished in ex-Sauternes barriques (for two years), a finish that we generally struggle to appreciate. This one, however, smashed all our prejudice on Sauternes casks, as it was delicious, full of sweet, cream and chocolaty notes: tiramisù in a glass. What was weird is that we came across the same tasting notes independently, before sharing them.

We were really impressed by this.

The fourth dram marked the introduction of peat. First off, a 5y single malt finished in ex-PX casks (from Bodega Navarro, previously in ex-bourbon hogsheads). In our understanding this one was from the English distillery, but bottled in 2019 by Sacred Spirits (or Sacred Gin), after the second maturation in London (don’t know why it is important, but it is stressed on both the label and the website). It was a decent dram, but again we were blown off by the final one: a lightly peated Wireworks (from White Peak distillery, one of our favourite tours in 2023) matured in ex-Amarone red wine casks, bottled at 54.1% and made in a small batch of 662 bottles. Grilled berries notes, an excellent dram. Overall, it was an impressive tasting, it showed how good English whisky can be, even at young age.

Another cracking dram.

Great lineup!

After the tasting, we moved back upstairs for the meal, which included two courses for slightly less than 30 quid. When we saw the price, weeks before (one of the necessary evils of these group holidays is that we have to choose our meals weeks in advance), we were not so convinced. Truth be told, it was a fantastic meal, in particular the lamb was one of the best we ever had since we moved to the UK.

No, we didn’t take pictures of the meal.

After this tasty lunch, we went back to the cellar, this time for another tasting: a rum one, with mainly tots from the local Siren Distillers company, run by Jamie and Anna. The distillery is in the Distiller’s Lounge itself, right upstairs, with the still in the window. (Update March 2025: we learned from posts on social media that the collaboration between the Distillers Lounge and Siren Distillers ceased, so they moved to a different location).

Their main activity is to source rum, and then redistill or infuse it with their spices of choice. From their range, we tried the Golden rum (40%, blend of 5y Caribbean rums, infused with honey, orange peel and vanilla), the Dark rum (40%, blend of Caribbean rums, including a 10y Jamaican one, and again infused with honey, orange peel and vanilla), and a preview sample of their Spiced rum (38%, redistilled with a number of spices), respectively paired with candied ginger, dried pineapple and dark chocolate.

Ready for round 2 – a rum tasting.

We also tried the Botanical rum from Rum Runner (40%, distilled at Twisted Roots Distillery, aged in ex-red wine French oak cask), and a spicy (yes, spiced, but also SPICY) rum, the Hell Smoked Rum (40%, barrel-aged in peated ex-Islay Whisky casks with fresh chili peppers and cacao nibs). It was an interesting tasting, although we are not really into spiced rum, so we didn’t (and still don’t) have much basis for comparisons.

The malternative lineup.

After the train back to Hunmanby, we had a last pint at the Piebald Inn (to Gianluigi’s disappointment, the kitchen was already closed) before retiring to the van. Overall, it was a very fun day, and we were particularly impressed with the English whiskies we tried. One popular Glaswegian whisky youtuber said (more than once) that there is nothing like good English whisky to keep Scottish producers on their toes…True or not, we can definitely say that the quality of these malts is good in general, fantastic at times! And hospitality-wise, many Scottish producers should take example from their neighbours.

It was the last “official” day of the All Drams Great and Small tour, but we saved one last whisky experience for the following day. Until then, slainte!

The Distiller’s Lounge
Link: https://www.jspubcompany.co.uk/distillers-lounge/

Whiskyside
Link: https://whiskyside.co.uk/

Siren Distillers
Link: https://www.sirendistillersltd.com/

#55.3 All drams great and small

An English malt with a Tasmanian twist and an eye for sustainability

TL; DR: From Ellers Farm, we went directly to another distillery: Cooper King. Inspired by Tasmanian craft distilleries, they produce other spirits other than single malt, with a very interesting set up. And, everything is done in the most sustainable way possible, kudos! After the visit, we went to Brew York, for a tour, dinner, and a quiz!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

After the visit at Ellers Farm, we jumped back on the minibus. Our next destination was only about half hour away driving north-west, approximately 13 km north from the city of York, in the village of Sutton-on-Forest. The distillery is called Cooper King, just outside the village. It was founded by Abbie and Chris, a couple who got the inspiration while travelling in Australia and visiting local distilleries. The distillery is named after Charles Cooper King, Chris’ great-great-grandfather. The main building is just a few meters from the gravel parking lot, and it harbours a bar/shop and production. There is also a nice wee garden outside, with wooden tables and benches, which we took advantage of after the tour. It was a nice sunny day!

Nice set up outside.

We were welcomed by Mark, tour guide and assistant distiller. Like others, he came on board as a crowdfunder. At some point (in our understanding) the two founders Abbie and Chris asked who among the crowdfunders wanted to be more involved, and Mark answered the call. We could clearly see his passion for the project. He explained that, in 2014, Abbie and Chris, once a biochemist and an architect, moved to Australia to travel, and started working as fruit pickers. Then, they went to Tasmania, and after getting in contact with Sullivan’s Cove and Lark, they decided to go back to England and produce a Tasmanian-style whisky. Back in Yorkshire, they bought the land thanks to a crowdfunding, as well as a 900-litre pot still (Neilson) straight from Australia.

Cooper King distillery in one shot.

Another principle they had in mind when setting up the distillery was sustainability. The electricity comes from renewable sources, of which 60% is produced on site with solar panels: this contributed to make them the first net-zero distillery in England. They also have a programme for planting trees and restoring woodland and wildflowers habitat for each bottle they sell. Moreover, they chose lighter bottles, and offer refills at the distillery, for a few quid less.

Ready for the tour.

Production-wise, they use Maris Otter barley malted in middle England. They pre-heat the small mashtun before mashing the malt. After that, the remaining draff goes out to local farmers to feed cows. Fermentation takes place in a 1750-litre plastic vessel (usually only half full to avoid foam accidents) and lasts seven days. Both distillations happen in the same still, which is different to what we saw in all the Scottish distilleries we visited so far. At first, Neilson the still was heated externally, but to make the process more efficient it was sent to Scotland for modifications and is now internally heated and insulated.

Inside Neilson.

The wash gets distilled to 25% abv, while the heart of the second distillation comes out on average at 75%, before getting diluted by filtered tap-water. Needless to say, everything in the distillery is very manual, except for the gin and vodka very modern cold-distillation machines (which take only about 10% of energy compared to a classic copper pot distillation).

Super-modern gin and vodka distillation.

They use a variety of casks from all over the world, and their main American cask supplier is the Garrison Brothers distillery, in Texas. Casks are kept in a safe container behind the distillery, while waiting to get a proper warehouse. They started distilling newmake spirit in 2018, and their first whisky was released in October 2023, about a year before our visit.

And Cooper King warehouse in one shot.

While we were outside checking out the casks, another member of staff set up the tasting in the main production room, which also serves as a tasting location. First, we went through five liquors and gins (see below), but as it’s not really our focus, we won’t spend many words on it. We were really interested in their whiskies. The first one was not exactly that: a newmake spirit, from the “Pilot Series” and bottled at 47%. It was followed by two single malts from their “Expedition Series”, Transatlantic (ex-bourbon and ex-wine casks, 48%), and Embers (charred ex-bourbon casks, 49%). Then, two single casks: first, an ex-Cognac matured single malt, bottled at the 53.2% natural cask strength; second, a dram first matured in virgin oak casks, then re-racked into an ex-Armagnac cask, again cask strength at 52.1%. The evaporation (or “angel share”) is higher compared to Scotland, about 4%, which combined with other specific conditions, might cause the abv to be lower for such young whisky. Overall, we could tell the degree of experimentation at this distillery is high.

The whisky part of the tasting, with our guide Mark.

After the tasting we had a few minutes to spend in the sunny patio, sipping on our leftover drinks, before getting back on the mini-bus. We headed towards York, precisely the Brew York Brewery. Despite the city location is not their main production facility anymore (that one is in York’s outskirts), it’s still a massive place. We did a production tour (£15, including four tastes) and then had dinner there (they do a range of Asian-inspired dishes, which were delicious, albeit heavy on spring onion). Unfortunately, the place was too noisy for the next scheduled activity, a whisky-based quiz, so we had to move to a quieter pub nearby. The quiz, organised by our whisky veteran pal Charlie, was great fun, and we went back to base all very happy.

What a great afternoon and evening we had! At that time, we had tried very few craft Australian whiskies (and even less Tasmanian ones), so the link between them and Cooper King was not evident to us. At the time of writing however (after a serendipitous trip to Australia…Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more), the connection is quite obvious: we spotted a very typical herbaceous note in Cooper King drams, the same we found in most whiskies down under. Overall, it’s a very interesting project, which we are very glad we got to know more of.

Next up, another Yorkshire whisky day, but not a distillery! Until next time, slainte!

Cooper King Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 5 spirits (Dry Gin, 42%; Herb Gin, 40%; Smoked+Spice Dry Gin, 41%; Black Cardamom Vodka, 40%; Berry+Basil liqueur, 25%) and 4 drams: Transatlantic (48%, ex-bourbon and ex-wine, 1208 bottles), Embers (ex-bourbon, 49%, 938 bottles), ex-Cognac matured single cask (53.2%), virgin oak/ex-Armagnac cask (52.1%)

Target: whisky and spirit enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the distillery set up

Recommended: yes

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

#55.2 All drams great and small

Compares apples with malt: Ellers Farm

TL; DR: After a good night sleep, it was time for another couple of Yorkshire distilleries, starting from Ellers Farm. Initially only a vodka distillery, they soon moved into gin and other liquors and spirits. The plan is to release a single malt in 2025. A very different take on whisky distillation, even compared to other English distilleries.

(missed Part 1?)

Done with the distillery tour at the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery, we slowly walked back to the Pie Bald Inn, and to Mr Vantastic. After some rest, it was time for dinner: we were eager to try the renowned pies. They did not disappoint, the pies were very good, and portions quite big, so big that we both had some leftovers (which rarely happens with Gianluigi)!

We woke up feeling well rested and ready for the day ahead. For breakfast we had the leftovers from the night before, warmed up in a pan in the campervan – great smell afterwards. We needed a big breakfast, as the programme of the day was ambitious: two distillery visits and a brewery tour. To make things easier for everyone, Justine had booked a small coach for the day.

Tasted much better than it looks.

After about 50 minutes driving inland in the sunny Yorkshire countryside, we arrived at our first destination: Ellers Farm Distillery, in Stamford Bridge. This distillery might be popular because of a certain comedian coming on board, but more on that later. The site is an old farm, with one of the buildings now hosting the visitor centre and shop, a tasting room and some offices. We were welcomed by Ollie who, after a brief introduction, showed us around. The founder, Chris Fraser, started getting into drinks in 2014 after spotting an apple orchard whose fruits were not getting picked but instead left to rot on or under the trees. He started using the apples to make cider, followed by brandy and “calvados-style” spirits using a small still. He then came up with the idea to distill to high proof to make an apple vodka. So the Dutch Barn Vodka was born! The name comes from the type of barn that there used to be on the site before the conversion into a distillery – to us, despite the “Dutch” adjective, the building looked more of American style. Later on, the Y-gin (Y for Yorkshire) was added to the portfolio. Today, 20% of the (B Corp) company is owned by employees, and there are plans to reach net zero by 2040. In 2023, Ricky Gervais was asked to feature in an advertisement, but instead he came on board as co-owner.

A Dutch barn converted into a distillery.

Production takes place in the building on the other side of the courtyard. They use water coming from a 263-meter-deep borehole, and put the apples in a 8,000-litre fermenter with their own strain of yeast, to get a 12-15% abv “wash” (not sure if this is the name…). The distillation happens first in a column still (‘Magic Mike’, great name) made in Italy, but also in a pot still (see below) and two rectification stills (with 26 and 25 distillation plates) for a total of 70 distillations: apparently, the two parts combined would make it one of the tallest stills in Europe (please if you work at the distillery and thing we got this wrong let us know, our notes were a bit foggy). Within the stills, about 70% of the liquid is recirculating, while 30% comes out as vodka. To note, they also have another mini-still, ‘Crystal’ to reduce the level of methanol.

Success came right after their launch in 2022, with Waitrose being one of the first clients (for those not living in the UK, a very posh supermarket chain). When Asda (a bigger chain) also wanted to distribute their vodka, they increased production. At the time of our visit, they were about to launch in the American market, which meant further expansion from the current 1.3 millions of litres per year production.

Magic Mike, not easy to take a picture of.

Still in 2022, they started a collaboration with Theakston Brewery, producer of the popular (but unknown to us before this visit) Old Peculier beer, to make English single malt. The brewery provides the fermented wash: it is made with 100% malted barley (from Muntons maltster) and is fermented for 96 hours with two different yeasts, one at the bottom and one at the top of the vessel. They also let it reast for another 12 days, to get to 16 days in total. Once at the distillery, it goes first into an 8.5m-tall column still (‘Magic Mike’, great name) to get to 40%, and then in a 2,500-litre copper pot still (‘Granny Smith’, another brilliant name), described by Ollie as their distiller Jamie’s “brain child”.

This one was easier to take.

For every distillation run, they produce about 7 casks worth of newmake spirit, mostly filled at 63% after diluting from the original strength of 80%, with the borehole water. Their most prevalent casks are ex-bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill distillery, in the US. Some of the casks are kept in the production shed, but the majority rests in another building on site which we didn’t visit. The first cask was laid out in August 2022, and they aim to have their first malt ready in November this year (2025). In the meanwhile, to follow the journey of the spirit, they have setup the Evolution Collection: a set of 50cl bottle spirits, taken every six months from 0 to 24, and the final first single malt whisky, all bottled at 46% (the whole set for the not cheap, but not unreasonable either, price of £500).

A sip of vodka in front of the still.

After the visit of the production area (and a sip of the Dutch Barn Vodka) we went back to the visitor centre for the tasting: the 3-dram lineup started with the newmake spirit, followed by the 6- and 12-month spirits. The three samples were very interesting and very promising, all three at 46% and characterised by notes of grilled pineapple and other tropical fruits. The second dram had notes of banana and, surprisingly, of burnt (in a good way), while we got apple pie but some herbal ones too from the last one. As the tasting was turning to an end, Ollie took out the “liqueurs cart” with several gins, coffee liqueurs and others to try. Some of them were definitely very nice, although it’s not really our scene, but perfect for those friends or family members who like lower abv and sweet drinks.

A cosy tasting room.

This visit was really good, we could feel the enthusiasm around this project, and how much thought is put in every aspect of production. Also, this was probably one of the most generous tours we have done so far, which is not a given these days, in particular given the silly prices of whisky experiences (at the time of writing, the Spirit of Speyside 2025 program was just out, with many companies really taking the proverbial piss). The one from Ellers Farm is definitely a single malt release we’re going to keep an eye on!

Stay tuned with us for the rest of our Yorkshire boozy day! Until the next time, slainte!

Ellers Farm Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £10.00 pp (October 2024)

Tasting: newmake spirit “The Bairn” (46%), 6 months-old spirit (46%), 12 months-old spirit (46%)

Target: whisky and spirits enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the staff enthusiasm and friendliness, and also a paradise for those interested in different types of distillation

Recommended: yes!

Link: https://www.ellersfarmdistillery.com/

#55.1 All drams great and small

The Top of the Wold and the Spirit of Yorkshire

TL; DR: This year the jolly gang of the Edinburgh Whisky Group chose a controversial destination for the annual trip: Yorkshire, in England! Plenty of distilleries and other destinations, starting from one of the most celebrated English whisky distilleries: the Spirit of Yorkshire! The tour(s) and tasting exceeded our expectations: this distillery is a strongly suggested destination for whisky lovers!

With the start of the autumn (or fall, for those of you on the other side of the pond), it was time again for the Edinburgh Whisky Group annual trip. Our first destination was Campbeltown, in 2021: plenty of whisky activities, all at walking distance from each other, just perfect. The trips that followed, Speyside in 2022 and Northern Highlands in 2023, were logistically harder to organise for Justine, as they required getting a coach, and playing Tetris with the various distilleries’ availability. One thing Justine had to face, despite her huge effort and the number of distilleries in those areas, was the unwillingness of many to accommodate a large group (with exceptions, such as Glen Moray and Glenallachie), open their doors for the ones usually closed to visitors (again some exceptions, like Dornoch), or just arrange something different for us…In some cases even replying to emails seemed to be too big of an effort!

For the 2024 trip, Justine had a great idea up her sleeves: going south of the border, to England! Specifically, to Yorkshire. English whisky has seen a renaissance in the past decade, going from one distillery (The English distillery, in East Anglia), to a few tenths, as testified by the ever changing map maintained by Cooper King (a caveat though, some of them are gin distilleries possibly laying cask of newmake spirit, so take this number with a pinch of salt…Nevertheless, 55 is quite impressive!). We had already “drammed around” England, with visits to the Lakes Distillery (March ’22), Copper Rivet (October ’22), White Peaks, and Cotswolds (both July ’23), with White Peaks being the most impressive, in terms of location, quality of the whisky and, last but not least, company ethos. Because we’d enjoyed these ‘tasters’, we were quite curious of this deep dive in the English whisky scene, so when October came, we were really excited!

On the road again.

We left Leith on the Thursday night, sleeping half-way between there and the “base camp” of our trip, the Piebald Inn, in Hunmamby. This is a quite famous hotel and restaurant, in particular for the number (and quality) of their pies…Although Gianluigi was a bit disappointed when he learned that the Quarter Horse or the Chestnut Horse pies were not really made with horsemeat, d’oh! We got there in the morning, just in time for the group meet-up. For our first day, we had a brewery and a distillery tour: Wold Top Brewery and Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, both owned by the Mellor family.

First stop – Wold Top Brewery.

We started from the brewery, called Wold Top because Wolds are the hills where the brewery is located (it’s not a typo!). We got there by taxi, and as we settled in the brewery visitor centre and bar, they offered us a half pint (with a pint glass to keep), nice welcome! Sam, our guide, put on a well-made video about the brewery history. It was founded in 2003 by Tom and Gill Mellor on their farm, and it’s currently run by their daughter Kate and her husband Alex. Knowing that this part of Yorkshire is ideal to grow brewers’ and distillers’ barley, and realising that the farm sits on a great water source, they decided to cut the middleman and start producing their own beer, farm-to-glass. At first the biggest issue was distribution (they started with farmers markets), because of the remoteness of the area. In 2008 they installed their own bottling plant, and in 2012 and 2016 they expanded with new kits and started doing contract brews as well. For a while, the location could also be hired as a wedding venue, but that stopped a few years ago. In 2016, they also started distilling, but we’ll talk more about that later. For the beer, they mainly use Lauriet barley, which is sent to Muntons for malting. The barley is malted to eight different “colours”, but sometimes they also use wheat and, more rarely, corn. They use over 40 varieties of hops from all over the world.

After the video, we moved to the production area next door, also used as an extension for their events (and indeed, decorations from the October Fest were still hanging around). In this location they produce both the beer and the fermented wash for the distillery. After checking out the modern malt mill, we climbed a stair to get on top of a catwalk and check out the mushtuns, including the kettle to boil the beer (one of the main differences between making beer and whisky, beside the addition of hops), where the beer wash is boiled for 75 minutes. Next to the catwalk, the stainless steel washbacks for fermentation. The beer is kept in conditioning tanks for 2 to 4 weeks before going straight into casks (i.e. unfiltered), then chilled, filtered and finally put into kegs or bottles. We headed back to the (cosy) bar for another half pint, while our pal Stephen (after asking permission to the staff) served us a dram of a Filey Bay single malt finished in a Wold Top beer barrel (Ex-IPA finish, Whisky Exchange exclusive bottled for the 2024 Whisky Show, 51.5%) – a preview of what was about to come.

Going up to the top of the Wold.

Oh yes, the wort fermets here before going to the distillery down the hill.

We headed back to Hunmamby (again by taxi), to the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery. The building is in a small industrial estate, and other than distilling they also have a shop and a bar/café (The Pot Still) overlooking the still room. We had tables booked for lunch, and after the (nice) meal, we started the tour with our guide Justina. She gave us a welcome dram (the Flagship) while telling us the history of the distillery, which was built in 2016 and opened to visitors in 2017, with many options for tours and tastings.

Second stop – Spirit of Yorkshire distillery.

The fermented wash comes twice a week from the brewery on a tractor, 20,000 litres in total. For the whisky, they usually use Concerto barley in spring, and Vessel in winter. Fermentation lasts 75 to 95 hours, and the yeast is added twice, at different temperatures (two types of yeast, we missed which varieties though). The first pot still holds 5,000 litres, which are reduced to 1,700 after the first distillation. The second pot still is 3,500 litres, and after 10-15 minutes of foreshots, they collect 500 litres of spirit for about 1-1.5 hours, with cuts between 77-76% and 69% abv. Here is the novelty, they also have a small column still, which they use for 6 months a year in tandem with the pot still. For the column still, the 400 litres cut is taken between 86 and 85%. This system, as for many other new distilleries, was suggested by the late Dr Jim Swan, and because we are in England, and the grain used is barley, they can call it single malt whisky. The newmake spirits from the column and pot stills are put into casks separately, and then blended before bottling to get the required flavour profile: their flagship product is 50/50 column and pot still whisky, and it is fractionally married aiming for consistency; everything else they produce is made in small batches.

No pictures in the distillery – this one if from the cafe window.

The full capacity would be 450,000 litres of alcohol per year, but their usual production is between 12 casks per week (about 82,000 litres) which are stored in a bonded warehouse off site, but near the farm. Casks are then moved back to the distillery for bottling, in their new automated bottling line, able to make 600 bottles per hour. Everything is non-chill filtered and no colouring is added.

Well, we were allowed this one :).

After the very comprehensive tour, for the tasting we went back to the cafe, which they closed for the occasion. We explored their current range of single malts and variety of cask they use, including two expressions from beer casks (full tasting description below). At the shop they offered us another nip of things we might want to try (peated and Moscatel cask finish for us, to complete their range). Happy, we then headed back to the Pie Bald Inn.

Awesome tasting!

It was a great visit, we learned how things can be done differently compared to Scotch whisky, and still obtain a great result in such a short time (first release was in 2019 only) – the distillery is not even 10 years old! The array of whiskies we tried was very interesting, showcasing a great variety of flavours.

Stay tuned with us for more English whisky action! Until the next time, slainte!

Wold Top Brewery Tour + Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery Tour

Price: £12.50 pp + £30.00 (October 2024, our experience was a combination of the Brewery and Distillery tour, £25.00, and the Distillery tour & Deep Dive tasting, £30.00)

Duration: 1hr 30min + 2hrs

Tasting: 2 half pints of choice at the brewery and 6 Filey Bay drams at the distillery: the Flagship (46%, NAS, £55); IPA finish Batch 2 (46%, 6-7 months finish in a barrel that hold an IPA for 7-8 months, £65), STR Batch 4 (46%, finished for 7-8 months, £65); Porter Cask (50%, similar to their flagship, but finished for over a year in barrel that held Rip Curl porter for 14 months, sold out); Yorkshire Special Release 2024 (55%, matured in STR, then re-casked in ex-Madeira, ex-Sherry and finally virgin oak casks, £95); and a single cask bottled for the whisky marked (49.9% cask strength!, fully matured in ex-PX casks, distilled in December 2018, bottled in 2024)

Distillery exclusive: the Yorkshire Special Release 2024 (see above)

Target: beer and whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the welcoming staff

Recommended: absolutely

Link: https://www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk/, https://www.spiritofyorkshire.com/

#54 Another whisky year under our belt

What a 2024 it was!

TL; DR: The recap of our whisky year: 33 distillery visits, 28 visited for the first time, and 9 not in Scotland (a record for us?)! Also, 5 festivals attended (3 as volunteers), and 1 non-whisky focused. But more importantly, a lot of drams with a lot of friends, who really made our year special!

Another year about to end, we hope you are enjoying these last few very mild days (at least, mild in the Central Belt) of the year with some good drams, possibly in a cozy room, by a nice wood fire. For us it’s like that, minus the wood fire.

These quieter days come with some reflections and thoughts, as is usual for this period. Nowadays we give for granted these recurring events like New year, but it being established on January 1^st has more to do with cultural traditions coming from ancient Rome, rather than astronomical events. This said, the fewer hours of light (particularly at higher latitudes like in Scotland) bring some natural peace and tranquillity, helped by things slowing down due to most people being on holiday.

Inevitably, we fell in love with this place – Raasay.

This year has been another good one: we visited over 30 distilleries, most of them for the first time. We started with a bang during our usual trip around February, this year on Skye and Raasay. The latter in particular was quite spectacular – the 3-hour tour at the distillery and at the warehouse was great, but it was also amazing to drive around this pearl of an island, definitely one of the best we visited so far. That weekend also marked our appearance in Roy’s Aqvavitae vPub, as Italian guests in a 6-Nation themed blind tasting (which we both horribly failed). We had so much fun, it was one of the whisky highlights of the year!

A few weeks later, we visited Aberargie distillery, in Fife, thanks to an event organised by the Fife Whisky Festival crew. The distillery, which hasn’t released any single malt yet, is run by the Morrison Distillers Company, who also own very tasty brands like the sherried blended malts Old Perth, the Islay single malts Mac-Talla, and Carn Mor range (usually single casks or small batches). The Mac-Talla Mara (cask strength edition) was Teresa’s whisky of the year.

Mr Vantastic and Teresa at Aberargie Distillery!

The next appointment was, for the second year in a row, the Spirit of Speyside Festival. This festival is great because it includes visits to some distilleries that are usually closed to public – this year we visited Auchroisk, Tormore, Craighellachie, and Kininvie (where we met our friend Paul, who used to work at Linkwood and other Diageo distilleries). We also attended the Whisky Fair, a mini-festival at the Mortlach Memorial Hall in the familiar Dufftown, and a very fun and nerdy Start Wars themed tasting at Glen Moray!

We fell in love with this place too – Tormore.

In the summer we managed to visit Islay twice, first with our pal Justine and Gianluigi’s brother Edoardo, and then with our pals Clay and Glaire. Between the two visits, we managed to finish visiting all distilleries on the island, including Jura (another awesome location we’d like to go back to) and the newly reopened Port Ellen, during one of their monthly open days (spoiler, you don’t get any dram, but the visit is free). After the first trip, we also somehow managed to sneak in a visit to Campbeltown, for a cheeky Cadenhead’s Warehouse tasting…What else?

Happy, wee whisky group.

During the nice season we also visited a handful of distilleries around the Central Belt, including the newly reopened Rosebank, Crafty in Galloway and Glengoyne (Teresa had never visited production before) in the southern Highlands, almost all single-day trips. Edoardo was back in October to run the Dramathon, and in that weekend we visited production at Glenlivet, and had a tasting at Glenallachie, with our friend Sue pouring some super tasty drams!

Our yearly trip with our pals from the Edinburgh Whisky Group was in…England! Yorkshire precisely, where we visited three distilleries, two breweries, and a tasting room in Scarabourgh (The Distiller’s Lounge, also likely harbouring the most complete English whisky collection). Our longest holiday was in Australia, where we visited five distilleries and three wineries. We won’t talk much about these trips here as we still have to write the blog posts, but we were surprised by the quality of some of the whiskies we tried, particularly in Australia, but mostly by the incredible hospitality. In Yorkshire, all the distilleries offered in-depth tastings for (relatively) cheap, and they went above and beyond to accommodate our 15-people group. Similarly, in Australia some of the visits were arranged at the very last minute, but still, everyone was happy to show us around and was very welcoming. In our opinion, that’s something that the Scottish whisky tourism in general needs to learn, or maybe re-learn? In the past, with the EWG we struggled to find activities, we almost needed to beg for a chance to spend our money in some distilleries. Both in Yorkshire and Australia, things were so effortless that it left us wondering if Scotland is resting on its laurels.

Dramming south of the border – Yorkshire.

Dramming further south of the border – Australia.

A good opportunity to meet nice whisky people are whisky festivals, in particular the small ones! The year started with Funky Booze, organised in January by our pal Francesco, right here in town: small sized, very focused on Edinburgh companies, with a funk band playing in the background. It was very fun, with a younger and more diverse crowd compared to most festivals. March was the month of the unmissable Fife Whisky Festival, third time in a row for us volunteering there. The team behind this festival organised another event in October, for the first time with a different name and location: the Borderlands Whisky Festival, in Lockerbie. In August we attended the Whisky Fringe for the third time as well, almost in Leith, and earlier in the year (March) the same company organised the Drinkmonger Spirits Festival, in the same location: it was fun to try different spirits for once, we were impressed with some of the rums and Mezcals.

Working hard at the Fife Whisky Festival.

It was a very busy year also for tastings. Edinburgh’s offer is huge, with many tastings representing a great value for money. Mark’s Jolly Toper tastings, now happening at different locations and no longer at Kilderkin, are a good example. The Belfry pub is also hosting many tastings, for example the ones of the newly formed Edinburgh Drammer’s Club (IG profile here), a new whisky club inspired by the Glasgow Whisky Club. Gianluigi attended the initial meeting, but other commitments got on the way…Let’s see if we manage next year. Other great tastings were the Springbank Society new releases early in the year, Rob’s (aka Quasidrams and Marshall Spirits) Adelphi tasting at the World’s End, and Murray’s (aka One Malt at a Time) Springbank, again at the Belfry.

Trying to come up with decent tasting notes.

We’re looking forward to next year: no detailed plans for now, but we’ll definitely go back to the Fife Whisky Festival and, depending on the events, we’ll likely attend the Spirit of Speyside again. On our wish list there are the northern Highlands, particularly the area around Wick and Thurso, and the Outer Hebrides, which would be quite exciting (they look quite spectacular, not just because of whisky, of course). But mostly, we’re looking forward to having drams with the new people we’re going to meet, as well as with our many pals around Scotland: that is what really makes whisky a great experience!

So, until the next year, slainte mhath!

#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).

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.

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…

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/

#11.3 Birthday in the Borderlands

Crossing the borders for the Lakes (Day 3)

First distillery visit in England, in the gorgeous Lakes District.

(missed Day 2 or Day 1?)

We woke up after a resting night in our hotel in Workington. The night before we had had the chance to explore the town, but after the restaurant and a pint we decided to head back to the hotel. At that point face masks weren’t mandatory anymore in England, in spite of the high Covid rates, and this wasn’t making us very comfortable.

Our hotel was only half-hour away from the distillery, but we decided to take the long road and drive through the Lakes region. The road was not the easiest, long chunks of single tracks (which we got acquainted with during our trips in the Highlands) and even some very steep ones, which Cliff took like a champion! This choice, however, rewarded us, as the landscape was truly beautiful!

While driving through the posh village of Kenswick we also understood why we couldn’t find any decently priced accommodation for the night in the area. As we left the hills behind us, we entered in a very flat and smooth valley along Bassenwaite lake.

We were a bit ahead of schedule, so the fact that Gianluigi missed the turn (twice) for the distillery gave us the chance to explore the area even more! However, the third time is the charm (as someone would say…don’t know exactly whom though) and we finally arrived at the Lakes Distillery.

We learned about them a few years ago and we were both very curious about it. We had reserved the Lakes Whisky Tour at noon (hours are different now, every day at 11.30 and some days at 3.30pm), which is whisky focused. The regular tour instead includes vodka and gin production, which could be a solution if you are accompanied by non-whisky drinkers. Other options are the whisky and chocolate pairing (all Wednesdays and Saturdays at 3.30p), and the “pet the alpacas” experience.

The whole site was clearly designed with visitors in mind, so while waiting for the tour to start, we had a coffee at their restaurant (which is a proper one!). We barely made it, because it was fully booked for lunch. This is something that surprised us, but considering the restrictions easing and that the distillery sits in a very touristic region, we could have expected it (so, if you want to have a meal there, booking is strongly suggested!). Our guide was Sonja, and she started the tour explaining how it took a while for the funders to find the right spot, which they found in the Victorian farmhouse where the distillery is built. The distillery opened in 2014, and they’ve been expanding their production by repurposing some of the buildings previously used for cask storage.

We moved to a dark room where we watched a (spectacular but a bit too long) drone video following the water source of the distillery, the river Derwent, from the Sprinkling Tarn in the Lakes district to the Irish Sea in Workington (ah!). We moved to the production (where pics were not allowed), which is tightly fit in the old farm barn buildings. Here we could see something very peculiar: the spirit still has two condensers – a usual copper one and a stainless steel one. Sonja told us that it is there for experiments, it should produce a heavier new make because of the missing interaction with the copper. She also told us that none of the whisky released so far went through this condenser. The final part in the tour was in another dark room (not a warehouse, unfortunately), where we were talked through the effect of different types of wood on the whisky maturation.

Afterwards Sonja led us to a different building, a beautiful house just on a wee hill behind the distillery, with the alpaca farm on the back: tasting time! After a wee pause for restroom, the tasting started with the newmake, followed by a 1 year-old dram aged in a sherry cask. This is very important to them, as the Lakes whisky style is generally very sherry/European oak forward. We moved on to a couple of their One, the line of their blended whisky, including other malts and grain whiskies from Scotland. We had the sherry and port finishes, both very drinkable (someone would say “drams for drinking, not for thinking”), displaying again the ability to play with different woods. Finally, we got a dram of their last (at the time) release, the Mosaic single malt. This very rich and aromatic dram would have been clearly the highlight of the tasting, but Sonja decided to give us an extra dram: the Whiskymaker Reserve N 4, which was truly great (and sold-out, ouch).

After the tasting we had a wee meal at their restaurant, but just before that we went back to the shop for a wee taste of two other Ones: the Moscatel and the Orange Wine cask finishes. While the first was more balanced, the latter had a very particular note that we haven’t found anywhere else, so we went for that one. Finally, we got into the car and headed back to Leith, crossing the South of Scotland and some unexpected but amazing landscapes around Moffat and Biggar. Tipsy Teresa (she necked all of her drams, of course!) was definitely very happy for her birthday celebrations…while Gianluigi was already thinking about how to top this next year!

So, our first visit to an English whisky distillery happened, and it was good one indeedy! Thanks to the visit, we could see how their (former, apparently) whisky maker Dhavall Gandhi gave a very clear direction to their whisky. While definitely sherry-oriented, the drams we had were not “sherry bombs”, and the influence was more nuanced and balanced – we both thought Dhavall is an amazing blender. For us, some whiskies to keep an eye on and, unsurprisingly, we’ll likely return to visit!

The Lakes Distillery Whisky Tour

Price: £35.00 pp (March 2022)

Tasting: Lakes new make spirit, 1y malt spirit (ex-sherry cask), The One Port & Sherry finish blended whiskies (both 46.6%, NAS, NC, NCF), the Mosaic Single Malt (46.6%, NAS, NC, NCF)

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: Good

Highlights: the distillery is very beautiful and in a great spot

Link: https://www.lakesdistillery.com/