The Whisky Exchange Single Cask Exclusives - English Whisky

Head Distiller David Fitt and Kat and the two Whisky Exchange Single Cask exclusives at the show

We caught up with The English Whisky Company's Head Distiller, David Fitt, at this year's Whisky Exchange Whisky Show, who as usual blew us away with their new releases (as well as a rather exciting 'under the counter' experiment). David took us through the new triple distilled Chapter 17, which we followed with the 2015 release of Chapter 10 before moving on to two single cask releases that he was immensely proud of.

Two casks personally chosen by Sukhinder Singh, founder of the Whisky Exchange, bottled as exclusive releases and launched at the show. We were mightily impressed with both of them on the day and were delighted to receive a pair of review samples a few days afterwards, to revisit them.

These are only available from The Whisky Exchange, and being single cask releases, only a limited number of bottles are available.

Two review samples at WDHQ  (no I didn't blend them into one glass)

Whisky Discovery #1438

English Whisky Classic a TWE Exclusive 53.4% abv

English Single Malt Whisky

£59.95 70cl only available from The Whisky Exchange

This Whisky Exchange exclusive release from The English Whisky Company is one of their favourites that they've produced. Soft and fruity, despite being bottled at cask strength, it's a perfect example of how great whisky from the distillery is.

The specially commissioned packaging features a red telephone box which has been a feature on the streets of England since 1926, becoming an iconic sight across the country. As time has moved on, most of them have vanished, with the few remaining saved for posterity through private ownership.

Just 270 bottles were filled

So What Did I Think?
Nose: A gorgeous soft candy nose. There's dusted milk bottle sweets, candied lemons and shortbread biscuit. These biscuit and lemon notes in time give lemon drizzle cake notes while floral notes bring up the backdrop
Taste: A very creamy mouth feel and again reminding me of milk bottle sweets. There's vanilla creams, the biscuit notes coming through before the peppery spices push through and hints of pencil shavings
Finish: Vanilla ice cream with a hint of chilli comes in right at the end

Whisky Discovery #1439

English Whisky Peated TWE Exclusive 53.4% abv

English Single Malt Whisky

£59.95 70cl only available from The Whisky Exchange

Only a small amount of the whisky produced at St George’s distillery is heavily peated, adding a thick layer of smoky flavour to their fruity spirit.

The telephone box theme is repeated, but in black. In the 1980s, a few of the UK’s red telephone boxes were painted black as the telecommunication industry moved into private ownership. While the iconic shape designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott did not change, these telephone boxes were stood in stark contrast to their red counterparts.

Just 290 bottles were filled

So What Did I Think?
Nose: My first impressions when revisiting this was Citrus peel and charcoal ash. The lemon peel notes coming across at toasted and a sweet smoke follows. There's even a 'beach feel' to this with sea spray and driftwood before some hedgerow fruits of blackberry and blackcurrants
Taste: A very chewy dram with a great mouth-feel which seems to thicken over time, with a liquorice sweetness, enriched with cloves while an underlying earthiness that slowly builds into the long peaty finish.
Finish: Long peaty earthiness, gentle smoke with just a hint of candied peel.

Verdict
We're both big fans of English Whisky, it was the first ever distillery I'd visited and these two single cask releases are simply superb. At circa £60 each won't  break the bank either. If I had to pick a favourite and only had £60 to spend? I'd pick the peated cask, and then ask Kat to buy me the Classic cask for Christmas.

Slàinte! Dave

English Whisky Co. Twitter Tasting

This was my third Tweet Tasting hosted by Steve Rush of @TheWhiskyWire, and this time I shared the drams with daughter Kat for her first experience of one:

All of the tweet tasters had been sent a very impressive parcel of four very securely packaged samples with just a simply numbered label on the front to identify them. We had been sent an information sheet to give some very basic details of what was within each bottle, but very little else.

The four numbered tasting samples in front of my bottle of Chapter 6

I had visited the home of the English Whisky Co. Ltd, St. Georges Distillery, earlier this year, so had a little experience of what this distillery has been producing. I tasted the three core expressions at the distillery and came away with my own bottle of Chapter 6, then earlier this month we met Andrew Nelstrop at the Midlands Fest and sampled the excellent Diamond Jubilee limited edition. I was really looking forward to this event.

With eight glasses laid out alongside the four samples, a glass of water and straw for dropping water into the drams, and a bottle of water for rinising the palate between expressions we were ready in good time, so much so I thought we out to 'warm' our palates up with a drop of Chapter 6 beforehand.

#EWCTT we're all ready to go!

Twitter was set-up with two screens on the PC, my iPad was also on Twitter and Kat was tweeting on her phone we were ready to go. All we knew about each dram was the following:

• #EWCTT Sample Number 1: Drawn directly from cask and reduced to 46% abv
• #EWCTT Sample Number 2: Drawn directly from cask and reduced to 46% abv
• #EWCTT Sample Number 3: Taken from a bottling run at 46% abv
• #EWCTT Sample Number 4: Drawn directly from cask and at cask strength of 61.7% abv

Steve Rush, and David Fitt, chief distiller at The English Whisky Company, then started proceedings promptly at 1900 and we opened our first sample:

Whisky Discovery #140

We found out after we had made our observations that this was from a five year old , ex Jim Beam bourbon cask and reduced to 46% abv. Only 100 bottle so this had been released from the distillery, so we were one of the few who have tasted it.

I found this needed a little time in the glass as it had a very dry and dusty start, but after a while it started to open up with a little sweetness starting to come through on the nose, eventually I started to get some grassy and cereal notes and dusty pears, it was a much drier nose that the Chapter 6 I had a longside it. Then I started to pick out some fresh green oak.

It had a smooth and creamy mouth feel to it, with sweet vanilla and a peppery spicy edge. While tasting the nose was getting sweeter, and beginning to become positively floral. The finish left my mouth feeling very dry, just like I had eaten too many nuts!

Whisky Discovery #141

Again we had to make all of our observations before we found out that that this was a new expression being developed for the duty free and US markets. Made from 3 year old, primarily first fill ex-bourbon casks along with some 4 year old low level peated whisky which had been matured in Burgundy red wine casks.

Having had the whisky sitting in the glas a while it was ready to nose immediately, and I instantly picked out some faint wood smoke, light fish oil, light soy sauce, and lime tang which is followed by sweet vanilla, it was quite similar on the palate to the first sample, but sweeter and less nutty. With a drop of water I got new leather on the nose, the finish was shorter, less peppery but as similar dry nuttiness and a creamy vanilla at the back of my throat.

Whisky Discovery #44

Not until we had all made our assumptions did David let us know that this was a sample of the current Chapter 13. It was peaty, but I didn't think it was as peaty as the Chapter 13 I remembered from the distillery tour, but then I have been drinking a number of heavily peated whiskies recently which may have affected my senses!

My first reaction was that this was just like the Chapter 9, the less peated expression. A lovely peated nose, with a little rubbery tyre shop, there was a faint, salty air to it, like the inside of a wooden yacht in a small fishing harbour, with tarred hemp ropes in a locker. I loved it! With a drop of water I picked out the Frazzles that someone mentioned.

Whisky Discovery #142

We were all caught out with this one. We were expecting a sherry cask, but later found out that this was a four and a half year old heavily peated whisky that had been matured ina Sauternes wine cask, we already knew it was at cask strength. It was magnificent and the highlight of for most of the tweeters on the night. It was the first tome anyone outside of the distillery had tasted it and so this was an additional bonus and a huge honour.

I immediately thought of sweet Sherry on the nose, but I also found a subtle sweet fragrant pipe smoke, and guessed that there may have been some peated spirit in it. I was also finding some rice wine vinegar but we couldn't remember what it's called so I sent Kat into the kitchen to check, it was Shoasing that we both were thinking of. On the palate I found this to be like a rich meaty massala curry, spicy but not hot, rich, creamy and full bodied, it was absolutely delicious

As per previous Tweet Tastings there was a great deal of tweeting going on and to see what happened search on the #EWCTT on twitter for the full story!

Yet another great experience and another highlight of my whisky journey, and registering another three new ‘discoveries’ A massive THANK YOU to Steve Rush at @TheWhiskyWire and David Fitt, chief distiller at @englishwhisky

For more information see: http://www.thewhiskywire.com/ and http://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/

Whisky Discovery #110

The English Whisky Co. Diamond Jubilee (46% abv OB, bottled 2012 70cl)

English Single Malt Whisky

Circa £60.00 70cl

The limited edition Diamond Jubilee decanter

I really like what The English Whisky are doing. Their St George's Distillery was the first distillery to be opened in England for over 100 years, and it is the first (and only) distillery I have visited on my journey to date. It was a fabulous day out and I can't wait to go back there again to see how they are getting on since my last visit. It seems such a long time ago now, but it has been just three months!

I've tasted all of their core expressions before while at the distillery. They’re all really worth having on your whisky shelf, and I came away with a bottle of the Chapter 6, so I wasn't too worried about tasting these all again while chatting the Andrew Nelstop, their Managing Director. However, I really wanted to try this recent addition to their range, and was really pleased to see them exhibiting at the Whisky Lounge Midlands Fest.

This limited edition expression was bottled specially to celebrate the Queen's 60th Jubilee and was brought together from four and five year old casks that were hand selected by chief distiller David Fitt. Just 3,300 bottles were released. I guess this whisky must contain some of the oldest whisky released, although age is not important as Andrew explained that they would only start mentioning ages when they had reach at least eight years old, the spirit has been maturing a little quicker in the more milder temperatures of East Anglia that it would in the Highlands of Scotland

As you can imagine, there have been a number of limited releases from distilleries and blending houses to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, with some fetching huge sums of money. This limited edition comes in a very elegant decanter and at around £60 for this what will surely become collectable, doesn't seem to be a bad investment.

So what did I think?

It was really quite floral on the nose, 'springtime in the countryside' I scribbled. There were also the expected caramel notes and a slightly citric sherbet too, but certainly not unpleasant. On the palate I enjoyed the caramel sweetness balanced with a peppery spiciness. 


Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this expression, certainly worthy of celebrating any jubilee with. If bought as an investment and it fails to perform, at least you will have the contents to drink which certainly does perform, I just hope there's still some left when my buying budget is back in the black!

Whisky Discovery #44

The English Whisky Company Chapter 11 (46% abv OB Distilled March 2008, Bottled Nov 2011)

English Single Malt Whisky

Circa £45 70cl

Just a snifter this time

This is the first heavily peated whisky to be produced in England, and peated barley at about 60 ppm phenols was used. Again with only small plastic tots to taste this whisky I’m unable to go into detail, but it there was a definite Islay flavour to this malt. These are the distiller’s notes:

Nose: Sweet and creamy with hints of ginger biscuits, aniseed and white pepper. Also vanilla and pear drops along with the grappa nose.

Taste: Creamy and clean barley at first, then the peat and pepper slowly build and fill every corner of the mouth, without overpowering. Ginger biscuits, lemon and lime followed by savoury dry peat and then more tropical fruits (pineapple, mango).

Finish: Fruitier than the cask strength on the long, soft finish, but still lightly peppered and citrusy on the sides of the tongue. Very mouth watering and the peat is more prominent than on the cask strength.

Awards: Master in Whisky Masters 2011 and 92 points in Jim Murray’s 2012 bible

Another one for the list, we'll get there one dram at a time!

Whisky Discovery #43

The English Whisky Company Chapter 9 (46% abv OB Distilled Nov 2007, Bottled Aug 2011)

English Single Malt Whisky

Circa £43 70cl

England's first peated Single Malt Whisky, using peated barley at about 38 ppm phenols. Again with only the small plastic tots to taste this whisky I’m unable to go into detail, but it there was a light smoky flavour to this malt but very little on the nose. 


These are the distiller’s notes:

Nose:  Very little smoke on the nose. Citrus, pine, spicy with paprika and pepper.


Palate: Light smoke and only lightly medicinal. Spicy and very zingy. Almost rum and raison ice cream. Malty and floral. Nice balance with the smoke. Very gentle.

Awards:  Master in Whisky Masters 2011 and 93.5 points in Jim Murray’s 2012 bible


I will be going back for a bottle of this one too..... so many whiskies, too little time!

Whisky Discovery #42

The English Whisky Company Chapter 6 (46% abv OB Distilled May 2008, Bottled Sept 2011)

English Single Malt Whisky

Circa £35 70cl

My bottle of Chapter 6

Their Classic Malt expression and a 3 year old non peated (non smoky) single malt whisky. With only small plastic tots to taste this whisky I wasn't able to go into immediate detail with my notes, but it was fresh and young as one would expect for a three year old. The vanilla from the bourbon casks was there as was the slight citrus flavours on the palate.The distillers notes are below:

Nose: Light and smooth. Fresh and fragrant, sweet, soft & slightly spicy. Fresh cut grassy notes, along with gentle vanilla. Fruity with hints of lime, banana and pear. A gentle waft of marzipan. Nose softens with water and is quite nutty (hazelnuts, cashews, almonds).

Palate: Quite full-bodied. Tingling and textured on the palate. Fresh wood, vanilla, again fruity and nutty, malty, cereal character comes through. Slightly citrus. Very clean.

Awards: Gold in Whisky Masters 2011 and 91 points in Jim Murray’s 2012 bible

Very Happy with my first bottle of English Whisky

I bought myself a bottle of this before leaving the distillery. It is my official March addition to the journey and a little piece of English whisky history. My bottle has been 'married' from four casks; 573,574,613,and 614, and was out of the very same batch that I tasted at the distillery. I cracked open my bottle and poured my self a large dram in a proper whisky nosing glass (thanks again Balvenie!).


So what did I think? 

This whisky has a great deal of potential, and I'll be looking forward to seeing their first 5, 8 and 10 year old malts. This is going to be a great whisky. The ingredients have been carefully selected and the whisky hand-crafted for an outstanding quality.

Colour: Very light and very much like a white wine


Body: Quite rich with lots of long legs in the glass

Nose: A lively nose, citrus and fruity, my immediate thoughts were of apple flavoured jelly beans! There are definite grassy notes and the bourbon vanilla coming through.

Palate: Smooth and creamy on the palate, with a slight tingle. Again fruity, sweet apple and melon and the slight citrus tang behind the sweet bourbon vanilla, perhaps even a hint of honey. I'm really liking this!

Finish: A gentle warm tingle with vanilla sweetness and oak at the back of the tongue

This three year old already shows great promise, it is a worthy single malt and can stand proud as being the first English single malt whisky for over 100 years! Do not pass the opportunity of tasting this little piece of whisky history.

Whisky Discovery #41

The English Whisky Company New Make Spirit (68% abv Distilled March 2012)

New Make Spirit

New make spirit, wow!

Direct from the still and tasted midway through our tour of the distillery. This new make spirit was unpeated, and was tasted at full strength. New make spirit is bottled and sold as Chapter 1, and the peated version as Chapter 2, but water is added to bring it down to 46% abv.

It was the first time I have ever held new make spirit, the nose was fresh, clean with the sharp smell of citric acid and probably sterilised my nostrils immediately. Tasting it was just amazing, before the alcohol singed my taste buds I got the citric acid again. I must do this again!

A visit to St George’s Distillery

I first found out about St George’s Distillery at the end of 2011 while reading some articles on the excellent whisky social network website Connosr.  It is the closest distillery to my home and at 77 miles door to door seemed like the perfect candidate for being my first. After finding out a little more about the distillery I contacted them over the Christmas holidays to see if they were running any tasting tours over New Year. Unfortunately they weren’t, so I planned to make my visit to them in March when I hoped the weather would be more settled.

I have read that England used to have a handful of whisky distilleries, and four were listed in the book ‘The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom’ by Alfred Barnard published in 1887;

·         Vauxhall Distillery in Liverpool, founded in 1781 and closed very early in the 20th century.

·         Bank Hall, another Liverpudlian distillery, produced grain and malt whisky.

·         Bristol Distillery founded in the 17th century, and

·         Lea Valley was located in Stratford, London, produced both grain and malt whisky founded in the late 19th century and appears to have closed by 1910

Therefore the founding of St George's Distillery is the first to be operational for around one hundred years. 

The Distillery entrance

So on the first weekend of March we drove to Norfolk to visit St George’s Distillery. The distillery was easy to find located just off the A11 just to the East of Thetford, and very well sign posted. We arrived a around 11:25am and I was expecting to have to wait until the midday tour commenced but we were immediately welcomed by David Cott, one of the tour guides, Judy, who manages the visitor centre, and Joy who volunteered to take us on our own personal tour to save us waiting around.

We were whisked up the grand staircase into the conference room and served coffee while we watched a short video about the distillery and a brief insight into how whisky is made. Joy then explained a little about the history of the distillery and how it all came about. We were shown two variants of the barley that was used, and could easily tell the peated one. All of their malted barley comes from Crisps of Fakenham, just 40 miles away, their yeast from AB Mouri in Hull and water is pumped from under their feet from the Breckland aquifer.

The English Whisky Company was founded by the Nelstrop family, in Roudham in Norfolk. Andrew is Managing Director, but the audacious plan was dreamt up as a retirement plan by his father James, a grain farmer.

On turning 60, James did not wish to retire but to do something different, tied into farming. With his son Andrew they decided to investigate a subject close to James’s heart – whisky production, which had stopped in England over 100 years ago. Some of the best barley is grown in Norfolk and the Breckland water is superb. Several concepts were considered, a great deal of research was done in Scotland, Ireland and Wales and in October 2005 a planning application was submitted with approval granted on 10th January 2006.

Although the initial idea was for a micro distillery, customs and excise wouldn’t consider anything smaller than 1800 litre stills. So, in a field they owned down by the River Thet, the footings were dug and the building work began with Andrew at the helm as main contractor.

They managed to persuade Iain Henderson, a distiller of some note from Laphroaig, out of retirement and to help get them going. Iain has since retired again, but before he did, he spent 4 months training David Fitt, a brewer from Greene King to take over. David is now distillery manager and is also responsible for making a superb whisky spirit.

The distillery was opened by HRH Prince Charles and produced its first 'run' on 12th December 2006 and by the end of the month had filled their first 29 barrels

In August 2007 the distillery was opened to the public with a visitor centre, a fantastic whisky shop and tours commenced.

From the conference room we were led straight into the immaculate still room. We were shown the copper topped Mash Tun, the three stainless steel Washbacks as well as the all important copper ‘pot’ stills. The distillery was not working on the Saturday we visited but the middle Washback was filled with a two day old wash that would be distilled on the following Monday.

Joy explained the distillation process and showed us the wash and spirit stills, as well as the all important spirit safe along with a little of the history of its existence. Although I had already done my homework on whisky making it was still fascinating and my wife found it all very interesting.

The Still room with the Mash Tun in the foreground, the wash still to the left and spirit still to the right

From the still room we were led underneath to where the water is pumped into the Mash Tun. The water comes from a 50m deep bore hole on the property (you will notice a small wooden shed on the front lawn – this covers the bore hole). The position of the bore hole to the Breckland aquifer was found using water diviners.

We then moved onto where barrels are filled. All barrels are American Oak bourbon casks and come from Jim Beam. It was here we were invited to try the new make spirit. My wife declined, but I wasn't going to miss this opportunity. It really was an amazing experience to taste this raw malt spirit, straight from the still.

nearly 2000 casks maturing

The whisky is batch made by hand with no computers, matured in fine casks, bottled on site using their own water, is natural coloured, non chill-filtered and all bottled at a respectable 46% abv as standard. (unless cask strength, of course)

Since the original distillations back in 2006, nearly 2000 casks have been filled which are all maturing in their on site warehouses. The distillery creates unpeated and peated whisky, as well as having a rolling program of cask trials.

Tasting Treats

At the end of the tour we got a chance to taste the fruits of their labour, and were presented with a small tot of each of their current core expressions, all three year old malts. We started with Chapter 6 and moved on to Chapter 9 and finished with Chapter 11. My wife, not being a whisky drinker, did try the Chapter 6 and although liked the nose passed her samples onto me.

We then tried some of the other products they have introduced; their Blackberry Liqueur, Norfolk Cream, made with English malt spirit and cream, Norfolk Nog, made with English malt spirit, cream and honey and St. George's Pedro Ximenez sherry, a sherry fortified with English malt spirit, which were also enjoyed.

They have an impressive collection of whisky from around the world in their shop, but I definitely wanted to buy a distillery bottling and eventually decided to start with a Chapter 6, knowing that I will be going back in the not to distant future to get something else. We also picked up a bottle of Norfolk Cream for my wife and her friends, as an alternative to the Irish cream they occasionally enjoy.

We had a great day out at the St George’s Distillery and thoroughly recommend a visit. The tour took lasted around an hour and was very good value at £5.00 each. I’m already planning another visit as I want to see the distillery in operation. If my numbers come up on the lottery I might even start my own!

The core expressions, Chapters 6, 9, 11 and cask strength 11 

Release’s to date:

Chapter 1:         New Make Spirit, straight from the stills with a little water added bringing to 46%

Chapter 2:         New make Spirit again, but from the peated malt

Chapter 3:         18 month single malt spirit, bottled at 46%

Chapter 4:         18 month single malt spirit, peated, bottled at 46%

Chapter 5:         The first English Single Malt Whisky, a limited Edition 3 Year Old bottling (now sold out)

Chapter 6:         Classic Single Malt Whisky, matured solely in ex-bourbon casks, bottled at 46%

Chapter 7:         Rum Cask Single Malt Whisky, spending the last 6 months in rum casks, bottled at 46%

Chapter 8:         The first Peated English Single Malt Whisky, a limited Edition 3 Year Old bottling (now sold out)

Chapter 9:         Peated Single Malt Whisky, matured solely in ex-bourbon casks, bottled at 46%

Chapter 10:       Sherry Cask Single Malt Whisky, bottled at 46%

Chapter 11:       Heavily Peated Single Malt Whisky, matured solely in ex-bourbon casks, available at 46% and cask Strength introduced in July 2011

In addition two special bottlings have been released:

Founders Private Cellar. A limited edition drawn from a single cask and bottled at cask strength in a decanter presented in a wood case

Royal Wedding Commemorative Whisky, a limited editions created for the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

Contact details:

St. George's Distillery

Harling Road, Roudham

Norfolk NR16 2QW

T: 01953 717939

W: www.englishwhisky.co.uk

            E: info@englishwhisky.co.uk