Last week saw the second annual English Whisky Week, organised by The English Whisky Guild (but open to all English distilleries, bars, retailers, brands and anyone with even a passing interest in this exciting and rapidly growing category). Aimed at highlighting the scene, English Whisky Week didn’t put on any events themselves, but rather pointed towards activities taking place all over the UK over the seven days. From free distillery tours, to English Whisky cocktail menus and plenty of English Whisky tastings from Cornwall to Cumbria and everywhere in between.
English Whisky has made a lot of headlines of late – between wranglings over a GI proposal (with both the SWA north of the border and distilleries within England outside of the guild making submissions), to major whisky award wins for The English (best small batch single malt) & White Peak (packaging design) and White Peak’s triumph in the Whisky Exchange “Whisky of the year” category at the end of 2025. People are definitely talking about English whisky.
The great thing about English Whisky Week was, for all the column inches (and there were many – see below), this was primarily an opportunity for people to try English whisky for the first time at barrel-top tastings, distillery events and more (numerous independent whisky clubs and groups also organised English whisky tastings around St. George’s Day). Bevvy even did a blind head-to-head with Scotch and, well, see for yourself how that played out!
There were also lots of distillery events, bringing even more people into the secondary business model of many English whisky brands – local tourism. Distilleries tend to recruit locally and, where they have shops, cafes and distillery tours / tastings – are one of the best tools for opening new audiences to whisky generally, and English whisky specifically. Come for the cafe, leave with a bottle of locally produced, small-batch whisky. Go in for a gin tour and leave with a newfound love of single malts. But always, always, exit through the gift shop (somewhere many distilleries now have hand-fill casks and other distillery exclusive offerings).
There was also the second English Whisky Awards, hosted by Jeff Whisky and No Nonsense Whisky (Youtubers). Voted on by the public, this year over 7000 votes were cast for 5 categories (see the winners and runners up here) I was honoured to be invited onto the live stream to announce Distillery Of The Year and generally chat all things English Whisky with Jeff and Vin. What was good from these awards was more people have clearly tried English whisky – but clearly most are only scratching the surface, so more work needs to be done to ensure smaller distilleries and brands can get a share of the action – something we continue to promote through tastings events, product offerings and (of course) the annual English Whisky Festival in November.
With 71 distilleries now making (or planning to produce) whisky in England, the category has grown exponentially since the first distillery opened in 2026 – however, the total output is still a tiny fraction of that north of the border, with the largest distillery (The Cotswolds) 500,000 litre capacity some way off the 15 million litres produced by Macallan each year alone. However, what England lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. GI or none, English whisky is turning heads for a few key reasons we’ll outline below:
Flavour, flavour flavour
This is a category that cannot rely on existing ageing stocks like in Scotland or Ireland. If you want to release an English whisky ten years or under (with many released in the 3-6 year age bracket) you need to create flavour up front before spirit even reaches a cask to mature.
Brewing
With a rich brewing heritage in England, it’s no surprise that many English distilleries are focusing significant effort on this stage of the process to deliver flavour in their spirit. From choosing heritage grains (lower alcohol yield, but greater depth and complexity of flavours), to mashing at lower temperatures for longer to extract as much of that flavour as possible – each decision is made to extract flavour.
Fermentation
Length of fermentation matters greatly to flavour development, as different sugars & acids are broken down after longer periods of time and generate different flavour compounds in the wash (such as malolactic fermentation) – but even the yeast strains themselves can cultivate unique flavours. From wine, beer and even naturally occurring yeasts, many English distilleries are experimenting with yeast to generate flavour profiles (often aligned to specific cask types) to deliver the flavours they want in the eventual whisky
Distillation
Still shape, size and run temperature all affect the way in which wash is converted into spirit. A longer, cooler distillation tends to allow for more of the heavier compounds to make it into the new make – giving texture and depth of flavour to the spirit. Many also use direct-fire which generates the maillard effect – essentially caramelising the wash and delivering deeper notes of toasted grains and burnt toffee
Cask Masters
If you’re leaving spirit for many years to mature in a cool climate, you can get away with a relatively inert cask (there are so many variables with maturation nothing is a given), but for young whisky you need casks that deliver authentic flavour – so freshly emptied bourbon or sherry casks, or re-charred and rejuvenated casks to bring the wood back to life and deliver more tannin and flavour than those that have been refilled multiple times. Although expensive, good casks from reputable coopers, distilleries and bodegas are delivering exceptional flavours in many English whiskies and can be the difference between an OK liquid and a sublime young dram.
The above is by no means exhaustive of the steps many craft distilleries (globally, not just in England) are taking to create flavour in younger whiskies. The microclimate of the distillery also helps as wild swings in temperatures of particularly hot warehouses in direct sun all speed up the maturation process. Ultimately there are local factors, aligned with conscious (often inefficient) processes that can be deployed to bring flavour into play at every step of the process.
There are also English distilleries built sustainable from the ground up, with B Corp certification (or working towards it), organic and regenerative agriculture for their grains, reed beds to filter waste water and even one making mushrooms from spent grains. But these are for another post or we’d be here all day!
English Whisky is certainly here to stay. How the category looks in another year, 5 years or ten years is anyone’s guess – but whilst some will undoubtedly fall along the way (especially in the current climate), many will grow stronger and build deeper, broader warehouses of maturing spirit that will one day be drunk as delicious English whiskies by people who may not yet know the category even exists – or have only scratched the surface drinking the more widely available drams.
Whatever you experience of English whisky, we highly recommend you find your local distillery (easily done on our interactive map), check out the range at your local independent spirits retailer and start dipping your toes into the more experimental, innovative and flavour-forward distilleries that are shaping the English whisky landscape – be that from an industrial unit in a City centre, a stunning distillery visitor centre or even a garden shed.
English whisky has it all – but have you had every English whisky?
Cheers,
Richard
Other articles from (or about) English Whisky Week:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/battle-english-whisky-barley-magazine-0y7ue
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/whisky/english-whisky-examples-to-try
