Yorkshire Distillery Launches Its First Single Malt With A Peated Finish

by Gary Carter
July 2, 2021

Yorkshire’s first single malt whisky distillery, located in England, recently launched its newest offering, a peat finished single malt.

This is the first foray into peated whisky for the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, and it’s called the Filey Bay Peated Finish single malt whisky.

“After the success of our ‘finished’ releases last year, we’re really excited to announce our next step, Filey Bay Peated Finish,” said Spirit of Yorkshire Director and Co-Founder David Thompson in a prepared statement. “This bottling is a much-anticipated first, as we give our light and fruity signature whisky a subtle sweet smokiness by finishing in peated casks.”

The distillery’s whisky director, Joe Clark, said that opinions can sometimes be divided on peated whisky, “and this release strikes very much at the middle ground for those who love peated whisky and those who don’t. Our Peated Finish is all about balance, light, sweet and coastal with flavors of vanilla, caramel, subtle peat smoke and citrus.”

Libby Barmby, of the Spirit of Yorkshire team, said, “From our perspective as an up and coming field-to-bottle distillery in England, we are always thinking about how we can bring interesting flavors into our production process.”

From their first distillations, she said they set out with a clearly defined light and fruity house style. “As we grow, so does Filey Bay whisky and the idea of taking our whisky through a secondary maturation in peated casks was a temptation we simply couldn’t resist. Using peated casks for finishing as opposed to peated malt from the beginning, brings us a more controlled and softer peat character to our whisky. The results we believe are very interesting and truly delicious.”

Filey Bay Peated Finish, bottled at 92 proof, retails for £60 and is available across the UK.

Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery is Yorkshire’s first single malt whisky distillery and one of only a handful of distilleries that grows the barley for its whisky production. It’s a collaboration between farmer and brewer, Tom Mellor from Wold Top Brewery and business partner, David Thompson.