IRISH whiskey? Of course. Scotch? If you must.
But English?
English…whisky?
The reality is that you could almost do an alphabet of English whisky producers now, from Abingdon in Oxfordshire, to Yarm, near Middlesbrough. More than half an alphabet anyway, with more than 40 producers in all now.
There was a history of English malt whisky production, mostly in the port cities of London, Liverpool, and Bristol, but that ended in the early 20th century.
As ever in the whisky world, there’s debate/ confusion about ‘the first’ name in the recent revival, with the Hicks & Healey collaboration in Cornwall producing a seven-year-old malt whisky in late 2011.
However, ahead of St George’s Day on Sunday, the nod must go the distillery of the same name, owned by the appropriately named English Whisky Company in Norfolk, who got their barley growing for the right reasons in 2006. Its ‘Norfolk Farmers’ grain won ‘Best English Grain’ in the latest Whiskey Magazine World Whiskies Awards and its 2010 Vintage Peated won the ‘Best English 12 years & Under’.
The English Whisky Company has also added to its Royal range with a limited edition Coronation whisky; only 5,000 bottles are available worldwide, priced £85, for a mix of malt whiskies matured in both ex-bourbon and PX sherry casks.
The Cotswolds Distillery, founded in the village of Stourton on Warwickshire in 2014, is another pre-eminent force at present, having won more accolades in those WWAs for its Founder’s Choice and Platinum Jubilee 1952 Cask products as the best English Single Malts (and Single Cask).
For its use of Plumage Archer barley alone I’d be tempted by the Cotswolds Highgrove Coronation Single Malt Whiskey, also produced to mark the forthcoming coronation of King Charles III - but the limited run of just 340 bottles is probably priced for collectors (£295). At least all profits go to the Prince’s Foundation.
Oxfordshire has not one but two up-and-coming distilleries: The Oxford Artisan Distillery (TOAD), the first certified organic grain to glass set-up in the UK making mostly rye whiskies, and the Abingdon Distillery, whose owner Jordan Morris is currently experimenting with mash bills. Heading west, there’s Henstone in Oswestry, near the Welsh border.
The English capital has the East London Liquor Company. Getting past its location in a former glue factory in Bow Wharf, this innovative lot produce single malts, rye, and wheat whiskies, with that London Wheat also including barley and corn.
The Bimber Distillery in London has just this week announced the worldwide release of ex-bourbon Oak Casks ‘Batch 4’ – the distillery’s largest and oldest small batch single malt to date.
This single malt whisky has been crafted from a vatting of the distillery’s oldest first fill American Oak ex-bourbon casks laid down in 2017 – Bimber’s second year of production.
Batch 4 is bottled at 51.2% ABV and consists of 7,000 bottles, available at an RRP of £68 directly from the distillery and also in a wide number of overseas markets.
Bimber also cleverly uses the London Underground as a starting point for some of its range and label designs, with the ‘Spirit of the Underground’ bottles much sought-after.
The Lakes Distillery in Cumbria released the first of two exclusive limited edition whiskies in partnership with Selfridge’s: there are only 763 individually numbered bottles of ‘Revelation’, available at the famous stores in London, Manchester, and Birmingham and on Selfridges.com
There are various other ‘Spirits of’ distilleries (Birmingham, Manchester, and Yorkshire), some as far north as The Lakes in Cumbria and Ad Gefrin in Northumberland, several in the south-west tip of Devon and Cornwall, plus no fewer than six beginning with the letter ‘W’.
There might always be a ‘Why’ in English whisky for traditionalists (not least with those Royal-related drops), but if you close your eyes and open your mind you’ll probably enjoy them as much as their Celtic neighbours’ products.
@whiskennyarcher
k.archer@irishnews.com
