Lakes Distillery WhiskyMaker's Editions - Bal Masque

The fourth release of the @LakesDistillery Whiskymaker's Editions series is Bal Masque.

Following on from Miramar it's a non-sherry bottling, let see what it's like...

Lakes Distillery WhiskyMaker's Editions - Miramar

The third release of the @LakesDistillery Whiskymaker's Editions series was a @MasterOfMalt limited edition.

It goes by the name of Miramar, but has very little other information, let see what it's like...

Lakes Distillery Whiskymaker's Reserve #4

Whilst @LakesDistillery continue to build stock and work towards a house style 'standard' release they have released the fourth in their Whiskymaker's Reserve single malt series. WMR #4 comes in at 52% and has been matured in PX, Oloroso and Red Wine Casks.

I really liked #1 and #3 but still think #2 was even better, let's see what #4 is like.....

Lakes Distillery WhiskyMaker's Editions - Colheita

If you've been following my blog over the last 12 months or so you'll have seen my complete turn-around in respect for the @LakesDistillery The release of their three WhiskyMaker's Reserves showing what they can really do without resorting to blending with imported Scotch.

Now along comes the start of a new series - WhiskyMaker's Editions - what are they all about?

Lakes Distillery The One Blends

Following quickly on the heels of their Whiskymakers Reserve #3 the @LakesDistillery have released two additions to their The One Fine Blended Whisky range.

Orange Wine and Sherry Cask finishes join the Signature and Port Cask finish, let's see what they are like.

Lakes Distillery Whiskymaker's Reserve #3

A little later than planned, due to the lockdown, Lakes have released the third in their Whiskymaker's Reserve single malt series. WMR #3 comes in at 54% and has been matured in PX, Oloroso, Cream Sherry and Red Wine Casks

I really liked #1, #2 was even better, let's see what #3 is like.....

Review of my whisky year - 2019

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c48,000 up from 29,000 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c2,600 up from 1,700 last year).

My highlights of 2019 were:

Side by side: Lakes Whiskymaker's Reserves #1 and #2

At the end of the summer Lakes distillery released their first proper single malt, all of the 6,100 or 5,922 bottles (depending on if you believe the bottle or box!) sold out within a couple of months.

The second release came out in the autumn, here we compare the two side by side.

Side by side : Lakes v Bimber initial releases

I've recently been lucky to try the initial releases from two of England's latest distilleries, both were impressive on their own but lets see how they compare side by side!

The Lakes Distillery's Whiskymaker's Reserve #1 and Bimber Distillery's 1st Release.

Lakes Distillery Initial Release - Whiskymaker's Reserve No. 1

I admit I've not been a huge fan of the whiskies coming out of my local distillery, The Lakes Distillery in Cumbria. I'm not a fan of unknown blends, expensive limited editions or dodgy marketing stories - just give me a good reasonably priced whisky to drink and I'll be happy.

The Whiskymaker's Reserve No.1 is their first 'real release' a single malt - let's see what it's like!

#BlindTasting Series 2 - Review

Series 2 of #BlindTasting finished just after Christmas! Following on from a fantastic Series 1 - this one was a huge amount of fun with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas or #MarketingBullshit to sway our opinions.

#BlindTasting Series 2 - part 1

It's always hard for a band to come up with a good second album and the #BlindTasting team thought long and hard about what to do for the second series..... in the end we decided to change nothing and just do the same thing again, it worked really well - why change it?

#GBMM2017 The Lakes Distillery

On Saturday 12th August Maltman Mike organised and ran a little whisky tasting shindig at the House Of Malt in Carlisle #GBMM2017! You can read the introduction here!

This is also my fourth in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about the Lakes Distillery.

Chris Pateman from The Lakes Distillery came to tell us all about the their distillery and brought a few bottles and a surprise!

Location

The Lakes Distillery is located near Bassenthwaite in Cumbria.

History

Building work at the distillery started in April 2013 renovating an old dairy farm which had stood empty for 20 years It was founded by Paul Currie who along with his father set up the Arran Distillery.

The farm before renovation began

The distillery opened in November 2014, with spirit flowing on the 16th December.

Beautiful gates at the distillery as it looks now

Production Process

The distillery takes water from the River Derwent on it's journey from Borrowdale to the Irish Sea. They try to use local barley from the Scottish Borders which is malted in Yorkshire.

The twin stills (5,000 litre wash and 3,500 litre spirit) came from Archibald McMillan just outside of Edinburgh and  their mashtun and washbacks from Musk in Burton upon Trent.

They plan to lay down around 700 casks per year.

Whiskies

The first malt whisky is due to reach 3 years of maturity in December 2017, in the mean time the distillery has been making Gin and Vodka as well as a range of blends using whiskies from around the UK which they are calling the One Blend.

Chris brought three for us to try whilst bringing us up to date on news from the distillery.

I didn't try any of these on the night, busy preparing for my Wolfburn presentation which was coming next, so have used the distilleries own tasting notes.

Whisky : The One (NAS)

Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV.

Price : £30

Colour : Pale Gold

Nose : Fresh fruits, treacle, light spice and gentle peat-smoke.

Palate : Honey-roasted nuts, spice, and hints of dried fruits and wood smoke

  

Whisky : The One PX (NAS) limited edition 5,252 bottles

Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV.

Price : £40

Colour : Pale Gold

Nose : Dried fruits with hints of fresh ginger, toffee, nutmeg and gentle smoke.

Palate : Smooth and creamy with notes of vanilla, sun-dried raisins, nutmeg and wood smoke.

Whisky : The One Tawny Port Finish (NAS) limited edition 3,740 bottles

Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV.

Price : £40

Colour : Amber

Notes : Golden syrup, sweet, nutty, hints of spice, fruit compote, slightly smoky

As a surprise Chris also brought a bottle of freshly drawn bourbon cash matured 2½ year old spirit which still had bits of a cask charring in it - this one I did try!

When left for a few minutes, to allow the spirit to settle, small samples were poured to try.

The 61.2% spirit had huge vanilla notes on the nose with citrus and malt on the palate - promising!

I can't wait for Lakes to release their first whisky - probably towards the end of this year or early next year. That may be slightly too young, but if they can match what Wolfburn have done it will be good. Early signs are, as I've said, promising and as a well known Irish drinks company say "Good things come to those who wait!"

Back to the #GBMM2017 introduction!

#GBMM2017 Introduction

On Saturday 12th August Maltman Mike organised and ran a little whisky tasting shindig at the House Of Malt in Carlisle #GBMM2017!

As you can see from the logo there was going to be a good turn out from some of the newer distilleries as well as the more established and of course a great bottler.

Twenty free tickets were made available and all were snapped up quite quickly - as well as the usual band of dodgy bloggers and vloggers there were some locals visiting the House of Malt shop in Carlisle for some free drams.

This blog gives an overview of the evening and I'll do more in-depth blogs of each of the dram providers!

The Great Big Malted Meetup 2017 took place at The House Of Malt in Carlisle

The shop is owned by Ben, Mike works there! They sell a large range of whiskies, gins and vodkas and an ever growing range of craft beers. They also sell online from www.houseofmalt.co.uk

Photo @JWBassman_

It's a great venue to hold a whisky tasting..

Inside The House of Malt

...but we actually started off with some Temu Gin, House of Malt have a UK exclusive on this Monk distilled gin all the way from Finland!

Crafted from rare wild forest ingredients
deep in the Finnish Taïga—the last
primitive, untamed forest
wilderness of the North

The meet up was due to start at 7pm but all those thirst bloggers turned up early to swap samples, meet face-to-face for the first time and share stories. It was really great to meet people for the first time when your only previous contact had been over twitter!

All the bloggers sat at the back of the room leaving the front for the locals!

Blogger's Corner! Photo @JWBassman_

It was great to meet Grimm @GentlemanGrimm, Vin @NNWhisky, John @JWBassman_, Daniel  @Whisky_Viking and Sarah @iheartwhisky for the first time 'in the flesh'.

A few samples were exchanged, some from secret suitcases!

Sample Suitcase!

As each of the distillery / bottler reps arrived introductions were made, more samples were tried and stories swapped (we hadn't even started for real!).

The drams to be tasted were lined up, unfortunately the Lakes Distillery were a little late so I didn't get them included in the line-up:

Part of the line up!

The plan for the night was:

• Abbie and Chris from Cooper King, but drinking a dram from Tomatin (Read more here!)

• Jan from Douglas Laing (Read more here!)

• Chris from The Lakes Distillery (Read more here!)

• Maltman Mike and me presenting Wolfburn (Read more here!)

I'll add links to the individual blog entries above over the next few days!

Lots of whisky was drunk, some cake was eaten (some people ate a lot more than some others!) and real as opposed to on-line friendships made!

Me, John, Vin & Grimm

It was a fantastic evening, many thanks to Maltman Mike for organising, House Of Malt for use of their beautiful premises, the dram suppliers Tomatin, Douglas Laing, Lakes Distillery & Wolfburn, Cooper King for driving all the way over from Yorkshire to tell us about their plans and all my fellow tasters for making it great!