St George's and England ready to join battle for global whisky sales

Published on Saturday 4 April 2009 14:32

SAINT George's Distillery, the company behind the first whisky to be made in England for more than a century, will this week start exporting to overseas markets in a bid to compete with Scotch malts in bars around the world.

Andrew Nelstrop, who created the distillery on the edge of the Norfolk Fens with his father three years ago, says the first pallets of 18-month-old whisky spirit will be shipped to Japan and France.

The 1m distillery, whisky shop, caf and conference centre opened its doors to the public in August 2007 following a visit from Prince Charles. Nelstrop already has the equivalent of 250,000 bottles of whisky maturing in American Bourbon barrels in a bond warehouse ready for release in December and aims to sell about 100,000 bottles a year by the time of the London Olympics in 2012.

He said: "Norfolk is ideal for making whisky as it is a prime barley-growing area and has a very strong tradition in brewing high-quality beers as well as good sources of underground water.

"The 18-month-old has been very well received, with one whisky judge, in a blind tasting, placing it as a 15-year-old. Realistically, with exchange rates how they are, most of the whisky will be sold abroad as overseas consumers get an immediate 30% discount on England. Our first focus is France and Japan with a view to exporting into the Benelux countries later this year. India is also a market we will have a look at."

The distillery made the headlines two years ago when Nelstrop persuaded one of Scotland's most distinguished master distillers to come out of retirement to produce the company's first whiskies. Iain Henderson had previously been a master distiller with Glenlivet and Laphroaig.

At the time, Henderson, who has created a light-bodied English whisky with a trademark toffee sweetness, told Scotland on Sunday: "I have to confess that this whisky will be every bit as good as the established Scotch whiskies and I think it will catch on."

Worldwide demand for top-end single malts and cheaper blended whiskies has never been higher, particularly in Asia, where China and India's ever-expanding middle classes can barely get their hands on imported whisky fast enough.

Last year, Scotch whisky sales worldwide reached 2.5bn, the industry's highest global sales in more than 10 years and the equivalent of a quarter of all the UK's food and drink exports. Whisky sales to China, meanwhile, have increased by up to 80% every year for the past five years alone.

Nelstrop added: "We are making about 150,000 bottles a year and we have a forward plan to take us right through to 30 years so we are not just loading it on the market. In theory it will be 25 years before we sell everything we produce."

Ironically the distillery is nearer its core ingredients than most Scotch distilleries as much of the barley needed by the Scotch industry to produce malt, the sprouted grain that has been dried over a furnace to produce the distinct flavour of whisky, comes from East Anglia. It then has to be transported to the Scottish distilleries by road or rail.

England has a rich history of producing whisky. Until the late 19th century the English art of producing spirit from malted barley thrived in locations ranging from Liverpool and Bristol to London's East End. The last working malt whisky distillery was based at the Lea Valley in Stratford, east London, and closed in the 1880s.

A spokesman for the SWA said: "We wish our friends in Norfolk well and see it as part of a much wider trend of interest which has resulted in new Scotch whisky distilleries opening and being planned, as well as older distilleries being expanded or brought back into production."