Tasting The English Whisky Co. Chapter 11 Heavily peated

St.George’s Distillery is a rather new distillery which started producing whisky in 2006. The distillery itself had been founded by James Nelstrop and his son Andrew. Currently their master distiller is David Fitt who joined them in 2007. The distillery’s first official Whisky was bottled in 2009. The distillery has a unique naming convention for it’s whiskies and spirits (under 3 years of aging), where each one is assigned a Chapter X name.

Chapter 1 ,2 were new makes spirits, where Chapter 3,4 were 18 year old aged spirits (not yet whisky).

Chapter 5 trough 11 which i will review shortly are aged whiskies usually 3 year old (look Here for older expression online)

Chapter 11 is released in two forms, a 46% version, and a cask strength version at 59.7% ABV, in a nice decanter. I’ve tasted both, and tried to compare between those. It is very interesting to see how they differ.

English Whisky Co. , Chapter 11, 46% ABV, £45

Nose: smoke, BBQ, pepper, anise, hints of new make (pears and apple drops) , and some vanilla.
Palate: Staring malt, biscuity  and quite sweet, then giving way to a good portion of peat, with vanilla, peppiness, and some ginger , liquorice .
Finish : Spice and peat, going on for a long long time. with a certain biscuity feel to it.

English Whisky Co., Chapter 11, Cask Strength  , 59.7% ABV, £65

Nose: More citrus, and less peat, pear drop and new make are there,  but shadowed by the citrus. quite an alcohol bite on this one. when it’s left to rest a bit, the sweeter creamier barley notes come in, and so does the sweetness

Palate: Sweet entry, then an avalanche of peat on the palate, which lasts only a few seconds giving way to the sweeter notes.Vanilla ic cream, and creme brulee

FInish : the peat is less prominent here, smoke lingers for a while.

Bottom line:

Very good stuff from the English whisky Co. Indeed, it’s a young whisky, but i liked it quite a bit. It’s not a whisky for those who are not into pear, and the Cask Strength is quite masculine.  Interesting peated profile, and showing great promise.  So the English know how to make decent peated whisky as well. Chapeau!

Score: 86/100

I would like to thank the English Whisky Co. for the official samples.