Filey Bay Sherry Cask Reserve #5 First Fill Moscatel & PX

Spirit of Yorkshire is Yorkshire's first ever single malt whisky distillery, located in Hunmanby, near Filey Bay on the Yorkshire Coast.

For Spirit of Yorkshire it is about doing things properly. That is why they're obsessed with every step of the distilling process, from grain to glass. Mentored by renowned whisky expert Dr. Jim Swan, their instinctive approach is to create a whisky that doesn't just replicate Scotch. This doesn't mean they rely on blind luck, they take the best of tradition and apply new thinking to create something unique.

All the barley used is grown in Hunmanby, on the family farm, and the water is taken from two sources, sunk deep into the chalk. The team is in control at every stage of the growing and distilling process, from choosing the variety of barley and how it is grown, right through to bottling on site at the distillery. Very few other distilleries in the UK can claim this.

Spirit of Yorkshire have invested in two of the largest Forsyth pot stills operating in the UK outside of Scotland. They also added a four-plate copper column into their process that works in tandem with the spirit still to add variance to the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery. This is all part of the commitment to combining tradition with new thinking to create something out of the ordinary. The stills were fired up for the first time in May 2016 and there are already thousands casks of various types being used, including sherry butts and bourbon casks, all of which will help create the subtle, complex flavours of the unique spirit.

FILEY BAY Sherry Cask Reserve #5 First Fill Moscatel & PX

This is Spirit of Yorkshire's final release to close out 2024 and the fifth outturn of their Sherry Cask Reserve series.

Balancing the best of the distillery character with some of their rarest maturing stocks this is a marriage of whiskies matured in two types of ex-Sherry casks. The ex-Moscatel casks bring a brighter character along with a subtle creaminess; while the ex-Pedro Ximenez casks bring richness, dried fruits, and festive flavours that are much loved in this style of whisky.

Like the previous releases in the Sherry Cask Reserve series, this whisky represents some of the distilleries very best, oldest and rarest whisky. It shows an altogether different side to the whisky that you don’t see in the rest of their range. Always a highlight in the SoY release calendar for all of us in the shop, it is the perfect bottle to crack open as autumn slowly drifts into winter.

Tasting Notes

Out of all the SCR releases this is probably the sweetest and densest, packed full of rich dark fruitcake, Demerara sugar, orange marmalade, sweet cinnamon and a hint of chocolate. It's a perfect whisky for relaxing with after the chaos of Christmas, or for warming up in front of a fire during a chilly winter evening!