Coming of age

[Rob Allanson]

It's a historic day for the small community of Larling as a farming family turned distillers put this corner of Norfolk on the world whisky map.
Set up at the end of 2006 by the Nelstrop family, St George's Distillery has reached that seminal moment when it finally launches its first official whisky.
When I visited today the English Whisky Company was in the grips of a steady rush of visitors, and people collecting their boxes of three year old whisky - so many in fact that the phones and faxes were ringing off the hook.
More than 2,000 bottles of the 'Chapter 6' whisky have been made available, made from locally grown barley and water from an underground Breckland aquifer.
The English Whisky Company's first official bottling follows the opening of the £1m distillery, shop, cafe, and conference centre as a tourist attraction in the summer of 2007. The family firm aims to sell 100,000 bottles a year by 2012 and its first peated whisky will be ready next summer.

For more information, visit http://www.englishwhisky.co.uk.
Tasting notes to follow....

[Rob Allanson]

Matured solely in Bourbon casks, bottled at 46% and non chill filtered.

nose: sweet. like honey nut cornflakes, sweet and cereal. Creamy vanilla oak. There is a little cinder toffee too with an edge of damp leaves.
Palate: Quite a lot of oak grip initially which then smooths out into that creamy vanilla. Pretty mouth coating too with a real sweet middle part to it. A little estery at the end.
Finish: Warming and that damp leaf/ humidor note comes back emerging from the sweet layers.
Comment: For a three year old it does not show its age much until towards the end of the palate. Everything seems to be pretty well knit together at this point. Promises big things to come.