Two decades ago, you could reasonably assume that a distillery in Scotland would be making whisky and one in England, gin. But this simple division no longer exists. There are now hundreds of Scottish gin brands, including Caorunn and The Botanist. While, in England, a whisky revival is underway.
It began in Cornwall in 2003 when Hicks & Healey made the first English whisky for a century. In 2006, the English Whisky Company opened in Norfolk. ‘My father had always dreamt of making whisky,’ says owner Andrew Nelstrop. ‘He kept bringing it up and when he turned 60 we said, “Go and have a go.”’ The Nelstrops were arable farmers (‘mainly combinable wheat, barley and that sort of thing’) and there is also a family building business, which positioned them perfectly for a trade whose raw ingredient is barley and for which a distillery needed to be built.
Because of its lengthy ageing requirements, whisky is not a business to go into to make a fast buck. ‘It’s like planting a wood. One day, a generation will get some benefit from it,’ says Nelstrop.
That hasn’t deterred others from heading into the field, although it does explain why so many whisky distillers also make gin – for the cash flow. Nelstrop says there are now at least 37 whisky distillers in England (a trade body is forthcoming but not currently in existence). Among them is the Cotswolds Distillery, which was founded by the New York-born financier and whisky lover Daniel Szor, who had the idea while looking at barley fields out of the window of his Cotswolds home.
There’s also the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, which makes Filey Bay Single Malt using only barley grown on the family farm in Hunmanby; the Cooper King Distillery near York ,which was started by a scientist and an architect who were inspired by whisky distilleries they visited on a trip to Tasmania; and Copper Rivet Distillery in Chatham in Kent.
Are you wondering what English whisky tastes like? I’m still hunting for a commonality. What I can say is that while many of the new English whisky makers have enlisted Scottish expertise, that doesn’t mean they’re out to mimic the style. Instead, free of traditions and not bound by expectations, English whisky distillers are able to take inspiration from elsewhere and use it to craft their own expression. Many are also forging paths of their own in other ways.
For instance, the Oxford Artisan Distillery is making spirits from ancient heritage grains and is as concerned to support their farming as it is to produce high-quality spirits. At the Lakes Distillery, just north of Bassenthwaite Lake, Dhavall Ghandi likes to use sherry casks to age his whisky, but looks beyond the oloroso casks usually deployed for whisky ageing, using PX, cream and fino as well, then blending the components to achieve the best perfume.
The English Whisky Company, which set out with a 50-year business plan, will release a 15-year-old whisky later this year. I asked Nelstrop what surprises he has encountered so far. He says the biggest has been the number of visitors. ‘We budgeted for 1,500 a year – pre-Covid, we got 80,000, which meant that instead of just one or two of us plodding around we were employing a team of 42 in the restaurant and to lead tours.’ A huge change. And expect to see more of it.
