St George's Distillery

St George's Distillery is a distillery based in Roudham, Norfolk. It is owned by the English Whisky Company who are a producer of single malt whisky and other malt-based alcoholic spirits. It is notable for being the first dedicated English distillery for single malt whisky in 100 years at the time of the building's completion in 2006. Their first mature batch went on sale in 2009.[1]

Not to be confused with St. George Spirits.
St George's Distillery
LocationHarling Road, Roudham, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Coordinates52°27′03″N 0°54′55″E
OwnerThe English Whisky Co.
Founded2006 (2006)
FounderJames Nelstrop & Andrew Nelstrop
StatusOperational
No. of stills2
Capacity1,800 litres
Websiteenglishwhisky.co.uk

Founding and history

Initially the distillery was planned as a micro distillery, an experiment in turning excess barley into whisky. St. George's Distillery now produces in excess of 80,000 litres of alcohol a year. Marks and Spencer began selling own-label English whisky in October 2013 which is distilled at St George's.[2]

The founder of the distillery, James Nelstrop, described manufacturing whisky in Norfolk as a dream forty-five years in culmination. His son, Andrew Nelstrop, was the main contractor in the building's construction. The barley now used by the distillery is sourced in Norfolk and historically would have been exported to Scotland's whisky makers.

The premises were officially opened by Prince Charles in March 2007. In 2010 there was a fire at the distillery, which reportedly was only minutes from burning down stock reserves. Nobody was injured and production returned to normal soon after.[3]

Production

When The English Whisky Company first started distilling in 2006, the Nelstrops brought in Iain Henderson (formally of Laphroaig), and a year later they hired David Fitt who was the head distiller until 2022, Chris Waters is currently the senior distiller on site

The barley used in production is locally sourced and the water is supplied from an aquifer that runs directly beneath the distillery. The whisky is matured in casks, is natural coloured, non chill-filtered and bottled on site at 46% abv as standard.[4]

Products

The distillery produces a range of whisky products, including beverages and whisky-based jams & conserves.[5] Its single malt whisky series is noteworthy for being released in batches called 'Chapters' denoting the change in the spirit throughout the aging process.[6]

In 2016 the company drop the Chapters format and rebranded the range to "The English" the first two new expressions were Original and Smokey.[7] Followed a year later by the introduction of "The Norfolk" brand, a single grain range.[8]

See also

References
  1. "English whisky bottled for first time in a century". BBC News. 10 December 2009.
  2. Rowley, Tom (9 February 2014). "English distillers race to profit from the £4bn whisky boom". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. "English Whisky Company minutes from disaster". Diss Express. 27 July 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012.
  4. Whisky Review Blog
  5. http://www.englishwhisky.co.uk Official English Whisky Co. Website
  6. Buchanan, Rose Troup (3 November 2014). "'Best whisky in the world' prize won by Japanese single malt for first time as Scottish distilleries lose out". Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24.
  7. "The English Whisky Company has unveiled new packaging designs for its portfolio, at the same time as rebranding its 'Classic' and 'Peated' expressions". The Spirit Business. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  8. "English Whisky Co releases Malt 'n' Rye". The Drinks Report. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
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