Newer Distilleries : Manx

This is the latest in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about @ManxMaltWhisky Company on the Isle of Man!

Manx have been distilling whisky since 2020 with their first release just out!
Location

The Manx Whisky Company Distillery is located here.

All photos from the distillery's social media.

History

Manx Whisky Company was founded in 2019 by Magnus Grinneback and Scott Young (with back-up muscle from Liz Young and Panida Grinneback) who wanted to create a small whisky distillery making whisky the traditional way using local raw materials. "Think local barley. In-house floor malting. Direct fired stills. Worm tubs. Long fermentations. Lots of elbow grease and even more patience." Distilling began in 2020.

Process

Their website explains their thought on whisky distilling:

The Barley

Our barley is grown on the Island and we get it directly from the farmer. The strain we are working with at the moment is Planet. We are also running trials to bulk up heritage varieties but so far with limited success.

The Malt

We malt the barley on the floor in our distillery. While this may sound somewhat strange it is fact the traditional way of doing it and it is still practised at some traditional distilleries. One such example is Springbank who do not use any externally malted grains. All our regular releases are made with our own in house malted grains.

The Water

We have no legendary source of water where ancient Celtic tribes have buried their treasures over the centuries giving rise to mythical whisky making properties. We use the excellent tap water of the Isle of Man.

The Peat

Our whisky is not peated. We will explore other ways of creating smoky layers in our whisky. One of those is to use casks that have previously held peated whisky which will affect the flavour of our spirit too. We have other ideas too and will let you know once we put them into practise!

The Yeast

We are yeast nerds and use multiple yeasts in our fermentation. The main fermenters usually have a combination of a distillers yeast blended with a brewers yeast. We often have a small side fermentation where we use wild yeasts that we have propagated which provides additional complexity and texture. It will be clearly specified in the bottling notes that will be published on the site what we have used in each particular batch.

The Casks

If there ever were large oak forests on the Isle of Man they were cut down at least a millennium ago and since we cannot do without we have to import these. We work with a variety of sizes and types such as firkins, barrels and hogsheads that have previously held bourbon, various types of sherry and wine. As with the yeast it will be clearly stated what has been used with each bottling.

Locally grown barley is floor malted at the distillery...

...Kiln dried...

...and milled on site in a locally build malt mill.

A 300 litre stainless steel mash tun...

...is used to fill their 'washbacks' -  modified 200l food-grade plastic drums, kitted out with insulation and heating/temperature control.

Distillation takes place in a pair of Portuguese Copper Alembic Stills (400 litre wash and 100 litre spirit) each with Lyne arms which feed into copper worm tubs.

Their first distillations were in late 2020...

...with the first cask filled in December 2020

Maturation

Ex-bourbon, PX Sherry and other casks are used to mature the whisky in their warehouse.

Whisky

Manx have bottled their first cask called Batch One it was 2.5x distilled using locally grown Planet barley in late 2020. The cask was 3 years old on 4th December 2023. A 50 litre Pedro Ximenes Sherry firkin gave 85 50cl bottles at cask strength.

Website
Link to the distillery website


Visit

The distillery isn't currently open to visitors.

 

Review of Batch One :

Distillery notes:  

 

Batch One was 2.5x distilled from our own floor malted barley in late 2020. It was matured in a small, 50 litre PX Sherry cask. 

These smaller casks mature quicker than traditional hogsheads and butts and this whisky has a maturity far beyond its chronological age. 

It is bottled at cask strength (51.9% ABV) with no added colouring and no chill filtering. 

Expect dried fruits, vanilla, toffee, orange peel and ginger notes, making it a real Xmas whisky!


Although I wasn't able to attend their launch event on the Isle of Man in December I was able to buy a tasting pack - here's my thoughts. 

 

My thoughts:

Appearance: Bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and take an age to fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: dried fruit forward as you'd expect from 3 years in a PX cask - dates, figs and some apricots hints add to the fruit. There's a huge macadamia nut note here too - quite Christmassy. Orange zest and caramel suggest some sweetness. Vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate and a hint of liquorice round things off.

Palate: thick sweet arrival, loads of toffee and chocolate with again a huge macadamia nut note. The dried fruit notes from the nose are here alongside some lovely blueberry jam, drying icing sugar and a little bite of Christmas spices. The mouth is left dry as the liquid disappears begging for another sip. This is wonderful stuff!

Finish: short and sweet with blueberry jam and spices.

Overall: Wow - a really lovely dram, perfect for Christmas. You'd never have thought this was only 3 years old, the tiny 50 litre PX firkin and the relatively high 51.9% ABV having a huge influence on the spirit. I'm even more gutted I did win the ballot to buy a full bottle. I guess the only downside is that this is a bit of a sherry bomb and for that reason its blanket any hints of distillery character - not that we actually know what  that is at this stage - this is Manx's first release (but see below!) Huge congrats to the team for what they've produced out of their magical little distillery!

As well as Batch One, the tasting pack also included samples of a Bourbon Cask, The Beta Batch and some new make.

Bourbon Cask

Locally grown Planet barley from 2020 fermented with Lallemand DistilaMax yeast. 2.5x distilled in the 100 litre still and matured for 31 months in a #2 Char 1st fill bourbon firkin. (57.1% ABV)

My thoughts:

Appearance: light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up immediately and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: buttered popcorn, vanilla ice cream, some dried pineapple and a hint of icing sugar, There is a little new-makey edge to this but it is only 31 months old! There's some sour citrus notes and a hint of peppery spice.

Palate: thick chewy arrival, loads of toffee and tropical fruit to start. That sour citrus note is back - grapefruit and lime zest. The new make note is a little stronger than on the nose but that's to be expected. There's some dryness as the liquid disappears and a little peppery spice.

Finish: short and sweet with toffee and spice.

Overall: this sample gives us an insight into distillery character - new make matured in a 'simple' ex-bourbon cask. This was a firkin so the wood influence was a little stronger. It reminds me a lot of the early Kingsbarns and Cotswolds releases (although they had some STR cask in the mixture too), perfectly drinkable but not quite there. Another 5 months maturation to bring it up to whisky age might knock a few more edges off but I think this might benefit from another couple of years. Again amazing for what they've produced out of their little garage distillery! 

The Beta Batch

Commercial Concerto barley fermented with Ale yeast. 2.5x distilled in the 10 and 100 litre stills and matured for 3 years in three 10 litre European Oak Casks and finished in a refill bourbon firkin which has previously held a peated Speyside whisky! (41.6% ABV)

My thoughts:

Appearance: mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: gentle peat smoke, dark chocolate, brazil nuts. There's some plum notes and a little vanilla. Toffee pennies and a little hint of salinity.

Palate: very weird! It starts thick and then goes very thin. The plums from the nose are back and some blueberry jam. It's very dry, beer like and strange!

Finish: short and slightly sour with plums, beer notes and some smoke.

Overall: this is very different - interesting but just not my cup of tea! The ale yeast has given a beer like note to the final whisky (how I don't know!) and I'm not a huge fan of beer finished drams. The peat smoke is evident on the nose and finish but less so on the palate. Interesting experiment!

 

We met Magnus Grinneback and his partner on our tour of Speyside back in September '23 where he told us about his distillery plans - it's great that they have now come to fruition!