Whittaker's Single Malt: 2024 1st Edition

Whittaker's is a family business run by Jane & Toby Whittaker from Harewell House Farm in the heart of Nidderdale in North Yorkshire.

In the summer of 2018, Toby & Jane embarked on expanding their capacity and decided to build a new distillery building so they could welcome the public through their doors so they could join them on our journey and new projects. The first one being making Whisky, keep an eye out for a very special, limited edition batch coming soon.

Their aim is to produce an artisan small batch, handcrafted spirit which reflects the Yorkshire countryside in a bottle.

Single Malt First Edition

- From the website;

"We are proud to release our debut '2024 First Edition' 48.3% double bourbon cask-aged whisky from casks R5 to R13. This is along with our 'First Release' are the first ever single malt whiskies produced in the Yorkshire Dales.

Our '2024 First Edition' is bold, innovative and light golden in colour. On the palate you will discover creamy caramel, with spicy, nutty notes finishing with fresh vanilla, old fashioned toffee and apricot. It is likely to be a classic and we fully expect it to be recognised as one of the finest whiskies available.

We expect around 2000 bottles for this release but as this is a pre-release and the whisky has yet to be bottled, the exact number is still unknown.

The '2024 First Edition' bottle's journey - We re-casked first fill ex-bourbon ASB casks 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 and finished them in first fill ex bourbon quarter casks. After sampling the whisky in the ASBs at 3 years, both the flavour and colour profiles were there but we decided to finish the whisky in quarter casks in order to further elevate both the colour, the flavour and accelerate the maturation.

These casks were all filled in April, May and June 2020 and the grain used to make this whisky was predominantly Golden Promise with Cask 10 a combination of Laureate, Maris Otter and Golden Promise. The new make spirit was originally casked at 72% ABV. When finishing in the quarter casks we tempered the spirit down to 63.5% ABV for optimal maturation in the cask."

Tasting Notes

Whittaker's take great care to ensure all the ingredients which go to create thier whisky, are carefully selected. The water is from the spring on the distillery site of Harewell House Farm and the barley is grown at the end of the river Nidd on another family farm, Poplars Farm, Ferrensby owned by Andrew and Ione Cumming (née Whittaker).

Creamy caramel, with spicy, nutty notes finishing with fresh vanilla, old fashioned toffee and apricot.