St George’s Distillery in Norfolk is showing the world that good whisky can flow from the stills in Norfolk, England and not only from Scotland. They also produce peated whisky, and this round TWE bottled two of their expressions, a peated and a non peated . Both are NAS, and come at cask strength (and are pretty young too as The distillery has been working since 2006). A nice peated whisky, showing all them Islay distilleries that nice peated whiskies can come from England too! And yes, the bottle looks awesome, right? let’s dive:
English Whisky Co.–Peated–TWE Exclusive , 55.2% , £61.95
Nose : A nice peated profile with bacon crisps and some berries. Pepper and vanilla, quite fresh and showing good sweetness and spice.
Palate: Pepper heat then getting bitter with a lot of earthy peat with toasted wood, bacon snacks and smoke. Barley sugars and mocha. A bit farmy too over here with youthful pear drop and apples.
Finish : Dry. Ash. Smoke. Earth. Espresso. Charcoal.
This is a nice example of a young well made peated whisky. it’s true it’s easier to make tasty peated whiskies (the peat does hide blemished and unwanted off notes) but this is well donr. There are hints of lovely bacon, smoke and fruit, which are often found in young peated malts. Nothing ground breaking, but really interesting to try something from this nice wee English distillery.