English whisky is a young category. How do you see it developing? Taking on Scotch or carving its own path?
Circumstance Distillery is very much âNew Worldâ ,but we take inspiration from both.
I guess it depends on your definition. Based on historical production there is an argument that English Whisky is old world. However I think it is clearer to consider the volume of continual production more than historical references.
I also think itâs difficult to split countries in to old and new world, most whisky producing nations have distilleries producing styles that align with both. That said the same is true in wine, an Australian winery producing a Bordeaux blend is making new world wine with old world techniques.
From a consumer perspective I would say English Whisky is New World, itâs emerging and evolving rapidly,
it doesnât have the lineage of Scotch, but it also doesnât have the restrictions and regulations of scotch either.
However, many English distilleries are essentially making âsouth of the boarder scotchâ, so stylistically if you pour a dram of English Whisky your likely to taste something that feels quite old world (ala Ozzy Bordeaux). A dram from Sweden, Tasmania, Iceland, Mexico etc is way more likely to be something very new. Again this is statistically speaking, there are plenty of people making innovative liquid in England.
In summary, England is somewhere in the middle. Not the Old World of Scotland and Ireland, and not the New World of our Nordic and antipodean friends. I guess time will tell which way it shifts, or maybe the lines will blur entirely.
I for one will be drinking lots of drams from both worlds.
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I think itâs an interesting debate. We canât turn our backs on the rich history of Scotch and Irish obviously, their restrictions have been put in place to protect geo denomination like Champagne. Its arguably where commercial distilling started if you speak to the Irish - 1608.
However, it can be argued that this stifles creativity and innovation which we are seeing in spades now which is fantastic.
The comparison with New World/Old World and how it changed wine I find rich territory - there were a bunch of key guys - the âflying wine makersâ as they were called who were predominantly French and Aussie who went around and did vintages in different places.
I wonder if weâll see âflying distillersâ and collaborations between new wave and established houses.
Is this something people would like to see?
âflying distillersâ would definitely be something Iâd like to see. Distillers spend a lot of effort with their mash and still setup, and each still has its own âcharacterâ. So having an amazing distiller work on different kit could produce some interesting (and delicious) results.