There's English Whisky In The Jar

We’ve all heard the hype about English gin and sparkling wine, but those with an eye on the future should look to whisky, says Rupert Ponsonby

- Rupert Ponsonby

ENGLISH whisky is set to fly—and about time, too, I reckon. Gin’s renaissance should be a lesson for us, an inspiration. Sipsmith was the pioneer, battling against officialdom until, one day in 2009, a fax stuttered in from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to say ‘Yes, go make gin’. It was the first copper-pot based distillery in London for 189 years.

We’re all aware that Scotland is the king of whisky, but it’s little known that 70%–80% of all gin produced in the UK comes from Scotland, too. However, amazingly, England now has more distilleries than Scotland, according to HMRC, with 166 distilleries compared with 160 in the burnished north. Of the 54 new distilling businesses firing up in 2018, 39 were in England, 11 in Scotland, two in Wales and two in Northern Ireland.

The beauty of gin and vodka is that they can be distilled, bottled and sold within three weeks. Compare that with whiskies, which use expensive barrels and need lots of handling time, plus space for storage. Then there is the legal minimum for three years of ‘ageing’, bottling costs and all that goes with it. Gin is providing the cash flow for so many new distillers, but it’s the higher-value English whisky that could be a nest egg for the future.

In 1887, Alfred Barnard visited the few producers in England for his great book The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. He named 10, but visited only four, so it’s likely that the other six were producing industrial alcohol or gin instead.