Founded in Norfolk by father and son duo, James and Andrew Nelstrop, The English Whisky Distillery is England’s oldest registered distillery. Distilling started in 2006 and their 2009 release was the first legal whisky to come from the country in over 100 years. The brand has had a few different names, meaning bottles can also be seen under the monikers of English Whisky Co. and St. George’s Distillery.
Even though The English Whisky Distillery could choose to follow the slightly looser European regulations, they adhere to the rules of Scotch.
They use distillers yeast and typical distillation takes around six hours, although their triple distilled expressions take twice as long. Maturation predominantly takes place in ex-bourbon barrels from Jim Beam, but they also have sherry and wine casks.
Unusually for English whisky, they offer peated varieties, alongside their non-peated releases. The distillery also experiments with different grains, which can be seen in The Norfolk series. The Parched, for instance, is a single pot still whisky that uses malted and unmalted barley
There is a wide range of bottlings from The English Whisky Distillery, but a good place to start might be The English Original, a sweet and fruity single malt that’s easy to drink. This forms part of their core range, alongside The English Smokey and The English Sherry.
