The English Whisky Company

The English Distillery was originally named the St. George’s Distillery and is based in Roundham, Norfolk, about 30 minute South-West of Norwich. The first whisky distillery sited in England for 100 years – the Lea Valley Distillery in London was the last to operate in the country until it’s closure in 1905 - it was founded in 2006 by father and son James and Andrew Nelstrop, who were part of generations of arable farmers but were looking to diversify their operations due to concerns with the future of the industry they had spent years working in.

Initially Iain Henderson, previously the Master Distiller of Laphroiag and already enjoying semi-retirement, was brought on board to oversee operations, before being joined in 2018 and eventually replaced by David Fitt, who had previously been a master brewer with Greene King and mentored with Iain for 6 months until he fully took over the reins. James Nelstrop sadly passed away in September 2014, but Andrew continues to honour his father by driving the business forward with unbridled passion and enthusiasm.

Early bottlings were released as ‘Chapters’ to denote the story progression of the distillery but in 2016 a rebranding took place to introduce a core range of an unpeated Original and a heavily peated Smoky edition, as well as various peated and unpeated bottlings that have spent time in a variety of cask types. In 2023 a Sherry Cask Matured bottling joined the core range and was awarded ‘World’s Best Single Malt’ at the World Whisky Awards the following year.

The last ‘Chapter’ to be released to the public was number 17 - until early June 2025, where as part of celebrations for the 18th anniversary of operation Chapter 18 was launched as a limited edition bottling featuring some of the oldest spirit produced at the distillery. The release is a marriage of different aged whiskies from a variety of cask types, broken down as follows:

10 year old refill Virgin
10 year old refill American Standard Barrel (also known as ASB) ex-Bourbon
12 year old ex-Pedro Ximenez Sherry
15 year old first-fill ASB ex-Bourbon
18 year old first-fill ASB ex-Bourbon
Plus a small amount of 15 year old peated stock

Of course, as this is spirit produced and matured at the distillery, this still remains a Single Malt whisky and not a Blended Whisky as some people may think! Intended as a limited edition release to be opened and enjoyed instead of just sitting on a shelf, 7,500 decanters in a tube featuring images detailing the history of the distillery are available worldwide at a strength of 46% ABV

There are overriding notes of orchard fruits and shortcrust pastry sprinkled with brown sugar and just a hint of white pepper. It's an incredibly approachable whisky that will be enjoyed by all - and represents superb value for money considering the impressive decanter and attractive tube!