World whisky is an emerging category, and the European map is changing quickly. England is the obvious growth story, with the English Whisky Guild counting more than 60 distilleries now operational, but it is not the only one. Romania and Croatia both have single malt producers who are only a few years into filling casks, and both turned up at the Scotch Whisky Masters 2026 with medals.
The competition is run by The Spirits Business and judged blind by a panel of experts. Its category for European single malts made outside Ireland and Scotland produced one Master and eight Golds this year. Let’s take a look at them.
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Carpathian Single Malt Whisky Peated Sherry Cask Strength
Award: Master
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
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Tasting Notes: Not publicly available
Find Your Next Bottle: $157 / £116
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The only Master in this flight went to Romania. Judge Smith described it as “rich, decadent, and inviting, nutty with a little bit of smoke. Oily, rich texture but good integration of alcohol.”
Carpathian is made by Alexandrion Group at its Saber 1789 distillery at Bucov in Prahova County, near Ploiești. The group is chaired by founder Nawaf Salameh, and opened a second, purpose-built whisky distillery on the site in 2023. Master distiller Allan Anderson spent three decades in Scotch and Irish whiskey before taking the job.
Production uses Romanian malted barley and local spring water, with double distillation in copper pot stills. The peated releases are made with malt smoked to around 35ppm.
This particular whisky is matured in a sherry STR quarter cask and bottled at 62.5% ABV. It does seem to be a bit of a mysterious whisky, though. Despite Carpathian acknowledging its award at the World Whisky Masters 2026, it does not appear on any product page in the UK. However, it is listed on the Iconic Drinks website.
The Lakes Signature Single Malt Whisky
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Rich polished oak, soft leather, dried fruits, pecan nuts, dark chocolate, orange zest, sultanas, raisins, figs, orchard fruits, citrus, treacle, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg
Find Your Next Bottle: $86 / £69
The judges found this one “warm and fruity.”
The Lakes Signature arrived in late March 2025 as the distillery’s first permanent single malt, following the seven-part Whiskymaker’s Reserve series. It is matured in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry-seasoned casks and bottled at 47% ABV without chill filtration or added color.
The distillery sits beside Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria and was founded in 2011 by Paul Currie, who co-founded the Isle of Arran Distillery. Whiskymaker Sarah Burgess joined from The Macallan in 2023 and told Mark for Forbes she has “continued the philosophy of using the art of élevage.”
She added: “These techniques differentiate us from scotch and other English single malts as the use of élevage is a rarity in the world of whiskymaking and allows us to be even more experimental and creative in our quest to create depth of outstanding flavour.”
Wire Works Port Cask Whisky
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Cinder toffee, demerara sugar, strawberry laces, vanilla fudge, milk chocolate, marzipan, cherry pie filling
Find Your Next Bottle: $74 / £60
White Peak Distillery has been making waves in the English whisky industry in recent years.
White Peak Distillery is located on the banks of the River Derwent at Ambergate in Derbyshire. Its house style comes from a seven-day fermentation using a bespoke yeast blend that includes spent brewer’s yeast from the nearby Thornbridge Brewery, followed by slow distillation in copper pot stills designed in-house.
Port Cask joined the Wire Works Provenance Core Range in October 2025 as its third permanent expression. It combines fresh Tawny Port barriques from Dias Cooperage with first-fill American oak ex-bourbon barrels, and is bottled at 50.2% ABV, non-chill filtered and natural color.
White Peak Distillery is also the location where Never Say Die Bourbon spends its English period of maturation.
Carpathian Single Malt Whisky Fetească Neagră Cask Finish
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Black pepper, cloves, candy, vanilla, raisins, bananas, grilled pineapple
Find Your Next Bottle: $81 / £59.95
Fetească Neagră, or Black Maiden, is a red grape variety grown in Romania, and the casks used here came from Alexandrion’s own Domeniile Alexandrion wineries in the Dealu Mare region. Few distilleries anywhere have access to casks from their own wine production.
The whisky spent its early years in a charred first-fill ex-Kentucky bourbon cask of white American oak before moving into a toasted European oak red wine cask, and it is bottled at 46% ABV.
It sits in the Romanian Wine Cask Collection alongside Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir finishes, with natural color and no chill filtration.
Carpathian Single Malt Whisky Greek Beer Cask Finish
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Cloves, mint, sweet candies, honey
Find Your Next Bottle: $81 / £59.95
A Greek beer cask in a Romanian whisky makes more sense with a little background on the company. Alexandrion’s flagship brandy was originally made in Greece before production moved to Romania, and the group still operates there. This bottling belongs to its Greek & Cypriot Cask Collection.
It was distilled in 2018 and matured for six years in total, starting in American white oak bourbon casks and finishing in a single bourbon cask that had previously held Greek beer. Like the rest of the range, it uses 100% Romanian-grown barley.
The Lakes Boundless Single Malt Whisky
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Incense, dried fruits, black cherry, citrus orange oil, tobacco, leather, aromatic white pepper, toasted oak, dates, raisins, figs, orange zest, vanilla, spice, toasted almonds
Find Your Next Bottle: GTR Exclusive
This is the harder of the two Lakes winners to get hold of, since Boundless was unveiled at TFWA Cannes on 27 September 2024 as the distillery’s first single malt designed exclusively for global travel retail. Sales run through Duty Free Global, and it picked up listings with Avolta at UK airports from July 2025.
It was also the first time the team handpicked only first-fill Oloroso casks for the maturation, combining European and American oak. Bottled at 48% ABV. Before this year, it had already taken Gold at the International Spirits Challenge 2025 and Silver at the IWSC.
Nebo Peated Single Malt
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Herbal, fruity, smoky, fresh, cereal notes
Find Your Next Bottle: $78 / £57
Nebo comes from Duh u Boci, meaning The Spirit in the Bottle, a Zagreb distillery set up in 2017 by two former pilots, Tomislav Anadolac and Hrvoje Bušić, who made their name with Old Pilot’s Gin.
Per the distillery, the peated malt runs between 30 and 45ppm, and maturation uses three cask types: new Croatian oak from the Golub cooperage, second-fill American oak that held peated bourbon, and barrels over 30 years old from Islay. Bottled at 48% ABV in 500ml.
The judges noted a “decent Sherry finish” here, along with “dark chocolate and mint.”
Salty Dog Whisky
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
Tasting Notes: Caramel, raisin, oak, smoke
Find Your Next Bottle: $74 / £55
Salty Dog is the newest name here by some distance. The brand describes a 12-year-old English single malt matured in American oak and limited to 1,000 bottles, sold direct online and through selected English stockists, with the Oxford company itself only registered in June 2025.
The wording on the brand’s own site is that the whisky was “carefully selected and matured,” which points to an independent bottling. It does not name the source distillery, but appears to be bottled at 40% ABV.
The judges picked up an “earthy and malty aroma.”
One To Watch: Wire Works Pineau des Charentes Whisky
Award: Gold
Category: Europe (excluding Ireland and Scotland) – Single Malt
The odd one out, in the sense that you cannot buy it yet. White Peak’s second Gold went to a limited edition due for release this month, and details beyond that are thin at the time of writing.
Pineau des Charentes will be unfamiliar to plenty of whisky drinkers. It is an aperitif from the Charente and Charente-Maritime regions of western France, made by blending grape must with Cognac eau-de-vie and aging the result in oak.
Cask finishes of this kind are familiar ground for the distillery, which has previously put out bottlings including a Madeira finish and an Islay cask finish. Keep an eye on our news page for the announcement.
Where European Whisky Goes Next
The picture that comes out of this flight is of a category still finding its feet, but doing very well. Producers who filled their first casks less than a decade ago are now placing alongside far more established names in blind judging, and the countries involved are ones with no real single malt history to draw on. Romania, Croatia and England are each doing something different with the freedom that comes from having no rulebook to follow.
Have you tried any of these? Are there any you want to seek out, and what do you make of the results? Let us know in the comments.
