Yorkshire Whisky

England, Spirit Reviews, Whiskey, Whisky

Travel Distilled reviews a single malt Yorkshire whisky, Filey Bay, with a peated finish from the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery in Hunmanby near Filey Bay.

Yorkshire Single Malt Whisky Peated Finish — Yorkshire Whisky: Filey Bay Peated Finish

Yorkshire whisky? Why not? You can make whisky anywhere. It isn’t exclusive to Scotland, Ireland, or the USA, and I’ve tasted wonderful whiskies from the Lake District and Norfolk in England, from Mexico and Japan, and indeed from all around the world.

The Spirit of Yorkshire

The Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery is based on a family farm in a village called Hunmanby, which has a population of just a few thousand and is a few miles from Filey Bay, and not far from Scarborough on the eastern coast of England. It’s Yorkshire’s first whisky distillery.

Yorkshire Whisky Range

The Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery has gone in at the deep end and is not just producing one bog-standard whisky but is experimenting with different finishes. They have an STR finish which was matured in bourbon barrels before being transferred to ex-Rioja barrels. Another expression is finished in Moscatel barrels.

Yet another whisky is finished in Oloroso sherry casks, and another one in peated casks – the one I’m sampling, their Filey Bay Peated Finish Whisky.

Field to Bottle

These Yorkshire whiskies are all made from barley grown on the family farm, and also using water from the farm’s two natural water supplies, drawn from chalk aquifers. The farm has never had a conventional water supply but has always used its own water.

Filey Bay Peated Finish

This particular Yorkshire whisky uses their regular spirits aged in bourbon casks, and then finishes the whisky in peated casks, marrying the east coast of England with the west coast of Scotland.

Tasting this Yorkshire Whisky

At first glance the bottle looks nothing special, but if you look closely you’ll see indentations around the bottom. These show waves from the rippling sea off the Yorkshire coast, and a seabird. This turns out to be a gannet, as the distillery is close to the largest gannet colony on the UK mainland, at Bempton Cliffs, so they’ve adopted the gannet as their talisman.

On the nose this is a total delight. It’s light and fresh, with almonds an immediate aroma, along with vanilla, caramel, some floral aromas, and a very subtle smokiness. Tasting it, the fruitiness really comes out, and the smokiness is a little more evident, with the vanilla/toffee/caramel notes also still there, and the distinct taste of almonds. At 46% ABV (92 proof) it also packs a little more of a punch than usual. I shared the whisky with some friends, one of whom is Scottish, and they all agreed it was the best whisky they’d tasted in some time.