by A Robin sits at the gates of the lake distillery and watches a steam funnel that drives lazily into the unusually blue winter sky. It flows away with a twittering and the gates – decorated with barley shells and juniper berries in blacksmiths – vibrate.
After a dairy farm, this building from the 18th century to 2011 had stood empty when the current owners remove the local slate walls to get the traditional copper before they have carefully rebuilt it, no stone out of place.
Against this background, Sarah Burgess worked on formulating the signature, the first permanent whiskey expression of the distillery. “Over the past ten years, it was about getting to this point,” says Burgess, who came to the lakes in 2023 as Head Whiskey Maker. It sits in the tasting room with a view of the river Derwent, the clear water of which forms the basis of the spirits produced here. “Since the distillery opened its doors, there have been about 43 different expressions. The introduction of the signature […] It is about lending some stability to the brand and demonstrating our craft and specialist knowledge. “
I sniff. On the nose it combines leather with dried fruits and toffee. There is an underlying sweetness from the maturation of Sherry Cask, but there is an American oak influence that gives fresh fruit: apple and pear as well as clues to vanilla. European oak brings raisins and figs as well as grades from cocoa and underpinning everything is a warm, butter -like mouthfeel.
Scottish makers cry badly
Despite a decade in the works, Burgess’ efforts are condemned by some as heresia. Your crime? Distill the border on the wrong side. “There are some whiskey drinkers who find the idea of the English whiskey completely unbearable,” Burgess giggles. “I once went to the spirit of Speyide – a huge whiskey festival in the heart of the Scotlands Distilling area – and organized a tasting event with the Lakes Whiskey. A man had bought tickets without realizing that it was English whiskey, and he was very, very unhappy than he found it out. It was a lot of it.”
According to the Scotch Whiskey Association (SWA), the earliest report on whiskey distillation in Scotland from 1494. In contrast, the English distillery was the first to open in Norfolk in Norfolk in 2006, which opened south of the border in Norfolk.
Although the English whiskey is half a millennium behind its Scottish counterpart, it is race to catch up. In the 19 years since the opening of the English distillery, 54 others started from Cornwall to Northumberland.
The English whiskey boom
“The increase in distilleries is interesting,” says Dawn Davies, the buying director of Whiskey Exchange. “We know that the gin boom helped. People often used gin as a vehicle to give themselves a little cash flow before creating whiskeys, so we see that […] Now whiskeys leads out. Covid also contributed to opening the doors to English whiskey – while people were inside, they bought many spirits and were more open to something new. “
However, all this success begins to feathers over the border to ruffles. The SWA has angrily reacted to the application of the English whiskey to a protected geographical status for its individual malt. “The proposal to define” single malt “songs whiskey only requires a distillation on the individual distillery and not in the creation of the mind from the masy barley in a single place,” said a spokesman.
A break with tradition
As part of the current application, English distilleries could buy and distill a spirit from elsewhere, while Scottish single malts have to be produced, distilled and matured. A SWA spokesman says: “It would be very harmful to the call of Single Malt Whiskey from Great Britain, and in the course of the single malt scotch whiskey if English whiskeys were described as” single “, although they were produced in a different way than the established processes and long-term traditions of the Scotch Whiskey industry”.
Burgess, which himself comes from Speyside and has guided the geographical indication (GI) taxin of the English Whiskey guild (GI), believes that the fears are exaggerated. “In the lakes Distillery we have absolutely no desire to damage the Scottish whiskey’s reputation, and in fact we follow the whiskey make-up methods that you determine. We hope that it only helps to have a GI for English whiskey to strengthen the reputation of the British whiskey industry.”
Gold field
In fact, English whiskey can make a “integral connection to placing” in many distilleries than on Scotch. “Some English distilleries are owned by farmers who use their own barley such as the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery and the Witchmark Distillery in Wiltshire,” explains Daniel Szor, who founded the Cotswolds distillery after he was inspired the huge barley fields in the region. In his distillery, the entire barley is grown by the distillery within 15 minutes and also painted nearby.
This is not always the case with Scotch, says Szor. “There are rules that dictate how and where Scotch can be made and aged, but there is no rule about where the barley is grown: it could come from Sweden, Ukraine, France, all over the world,” he explains.
Big whiskey
Szor, a self -known “Whiskey Geek”, claims that English is better than Scotch. “The average Scottish whiskey distillery has probably been around for a long time, probably belongs to a large group, a SPS – Diageo, Pernod Ricard, William Grant, etc. – but the way these large brands run completely differs from a new distillery with a lot to prove it,” he is. “You have huge budgets for brand structure, advertising, marketing and on trade offers. You are very tasted due to the enormous volumes you make. Every cent that you can save for the production process is an enormous number.
“If you see English whiskey as a group, we are brand new. We have to concentrate fully on quality. Almost all of us make Premium products in terms of the price. Most of it is a single malt that is considered a higher end of the whiskey spectrum.
Go gold
The resulting, although English whiskey may be, already deserves a call for quality. The Brathnahmaker reserve No. 4 of the lakes Distillery was awarded the World Whiskey Awards in 2022 as the world’s best single malt.
Bend the rules
Since the English distilleries cannot fall back on the prestige that has been connected to the publication of a whiskey for decades at the age of old age, it is no wonder that many examine the flexibility that is available to them outside of the strict regulations of the SWA. “If you would take our setup and drop across the border, this would definitely attract attention,” notes Joe Clark, Whiskey Director at The Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, whose Filey Bay Whiskey won seven gold at the Spirits Business World Whiskey Masters Awards.
“We use something that fixes a column with four plates,” explains Clark. “It is only a slight addition to the distillation process that allows us to make a lighter, more delicate whiskey style. Filey Bay is light and fruity. It’s a bit like in a band: You may sound good with a singer, guitarist and guitarist and drummer, but if you add a keyboard player.”
New world against old world
Although the Englands Distillers are in touch with the two oldest whiskey productions in the world, they expand the category in a way that is more comparable to other whiskey producers of the New World such as India, Taiwan, Australia and the Nordic nations.
“It is a product of the old world with an approach in the new world and that really inspired us,” says Heerema. “There are many parallels to what we had at the time with Nyetimber. Half a century ago, people did not accept wine in the New World. Even more recently, people have opposed English wine and certainly English crying. But through tireless persecution of quality, we have convinced the critics and now there is much more openness. The same thing happens with English whiskey.”
Good things take time
Any proposal that English Distillers want to make a quick money by losing the call from Scotch is contradictory. Not a single burner with the language The telegraph Had made another profit. “The creation process is long, it is very expensive,” says Heerema. “We assume that the margins will be high enough over time to make it profitable. […] This is not a technical business where you can get something in, do something and then sell it with great profits. This requires many years of endeavor and persistence. “
The coming years could be difficult for English burners, suggests Davies, whose sales data indicate turbulent times for the category. “After a limited publication, many of them thought about the limited publication at short notice,” she says. “You now have to build brands. That is why the lakes make the signature, so there is a core product that will always be the same.
“I would say we will probably see a few brands nearby in the next few years, brands that don’t have the endurance to do this,” says Davies. “In difficult times, you need a strong foundation, a strong basis and a good core of customers who are loyal to the English whiskey. There are critical fair. There are enough distilleries in England to highlight it. If you work together, you focus on laws that actually mean that it is an English whiskey and then a chance to create something special.”
Five English whiskeys to try it
“The reason why I like English whiskey at the moment,” says the beverage consultant and bartender Meredith, “is that you can use expressions or whiskey styles from all over the world and, on the basis of the terroir and the processes of English distillation, can give a shoot.” Here he chooses his favorite bottles to try it.
Will Meredith is Head Barkeeper on the Sprout, who brings this April onto the market in front of the Earl’s Court in London.
