Cotswolds Signature English Single Malt Review

Cotswolds Distillery is an English distillery which was established in 2014 by Daniel Szor, an ex-New Yorker and former London finance professional who relocated to the Cotswolds, and who decided to turn his passion for whisky into a new business. Inspired by the barley fields surrounding his home, and the fact that no one was distilling whisky locally at the time, Szor set out to establish the region’s first distillery.

After three years, the distillery released its flagship expression in 2017, the Cotswolds Signature Single Malt whisky. It’s made using locally grown Cotswold barley, and it remains the core expression of the distillery’s range. It also happens to be the very first English whisky I ever tasted.

In South Africa, English whisky remains a very rare sight on shelves. Unlike Scotland or Ireland, England does not have an unbroken whisky-making tradition. Although distilling was taking place there by the 17th century, the industry largely disappeared in the early 1900s. However, a modern revival began in the mid-2000s, and today dozens of English distilleries are producing (or on the verge of releasing) single malt whisky. So perhaps this is a category of whisky that will become far more familiar to whisky drinkers around the world in the not-too-distant future.

The Cotswolds Signature Single Malt is matured primarily in STR (shaved, toasted, and re-charred) ex-red wine barriques. This is then married with whisky matured in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels. This no-age-statement release is bottled at 46% ABV, is non-chill filtered, and is natural in colour.