Filey Bay / Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery Tasting
Indianapolis, Indiana – Once again we find ourselves at local specialty spirits shop Storied Company for another whisky tasting. This time, it’s the Filey Bay range of English single malts, originating at the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, and we’re led by distillery co-founder David Thompson.
The Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery is situated on a farm in, you guessed it, Yorkshire, England. They began production in the summer of 2016, meaning that some of their aging spirit is likely now more than seven years old at the time of writing. Before whisky distillation, though, there was actually a brewery already situated on the farm – they used their own barley and water source to craft it, and distillation was the next natural step in the process.
Dr. Jim Swan helped to guide the team through the process of creating the first whiskies, and his style is still plain to see with the emphasis on cask types and short maturation: the distillery employs many different types of casks (ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-IPA beer, STR, peated, Moscatel, and others), which are used to round the whisky and prepare it for bottling at a relatively young age.
One of the unique characteristics of the distillery is its still setup – in addition to two large Forsyths copper pot stills, they also used a four-plate column still in the distillation process. This should add more light, refined flavors, and it should also bump up the strength of alcohol coming off of the stills.
In our tasting, David led us through six whiskies, all of which were not chill filtered and contained no added color:
Flagship Single Malt
STR Finish Batch 2
Peated Finish Batch 2
Fino Sherry Single Cask #674
Oloroso Sherry Single Cask #904
Yorkshire Day 2022 Special Release
The Flagship Single Malt - The standard entry in the Filey Bay range – this is meant to exemplify the core character of the distillery’s product
NAS (but just under 7 years old on average), 46% ABV; aged in Old Forester ex-bourbon casks
Nose: biscuits and yeast, generally sweet, vanilla, bubblegum, peach
Palate: warm, silky, crisp spice, butterscotch, honey and nutmeg
Finish: brown sugar, oats, spice, cardamom
Thoughts: generally light and sweet, but a nice introduction
Peated Finish Batch 2
NAS, 48% ABV; finished in ex-Kilchoman Machir Bay heavily peated casks
Nose: light peat; herbal, lemon, soft oak, sweet & spicy pipe tobacco
Palate: medium peat, lemon-lime, burnt marshmallow, orange
Finish: wood smoke, peat, sweet lemon and lime, vanilla
Thoughts: surprisingly strong peat comes through
STR Finish Batch 2
NAS, 48% ABV; finished for 9 to 10 months in STR Spanish Rioja casks
Nose: bubblegum, mild pepper, dry vanilla, sweet oak, blackberry jam
Palate: oaky, red wine, soft tannins, berries, chocolate, wood smoke
Finish: wood smoke, vanilla, chocolate, berries, slightly herbal
Thoughts: heavy red wine influence, in a good way (berries)
Oloroso Sherry Single Cask #904
NAS, 59.2% ABV
Nose: sweet, juicy, fig, raisin, prune, perfume, strawberry popsicle
Palate: hot, red fruit, purple fruit, dry spice, nuts and nutmeg
Finish: spicy, strawberry and prune, cardamom, rhubarb, sugar
Thoughts: lovely red fruits, a nice kick of spice
Fino Sherry Single Cask #674
NAS, 61% ABV
Nose: dry strong sherry, dry fruit, oily, savory, bread, backed lemon fish
Palate: powerful, sherry and cranberry, dried fruit, rich, tannins
Finish: warm and oily, tannins, orange, raspberries, slightly young
Thoughts: slightly young and dry, but more elegant and complex
Yorkshire Day 2022 Special Release - An annual special release, this is only available at the distillery
NAS, 55% ABV, 1,500 bottles; a mixture of ex-bourbon, Oloroso, and Moscatel casks
Nose: dense and closed at first; brown sugar, grape, furniture oak, pepper steak, damp and earthy
Palate: fruity, or fruitcake maybe, Christmas spice, warm
Finish: long and oily, hint of salt, white grape, brown sugar
Thoughts: well-rounded, decent maturity and a wide range of flavors
Yet another interesting tasting at Storied Company, and this was one of our first major forays into English whisky. Consider our interest piqued – the character of the spirit is great, and it’s amazing how mature and ready these whiskies can be considering how new the distillery is. We’ll be on the lookout for more Filey Bay in our area, but also the likes of Cotswolds, Bimber, St. George’s, and other English whiskies – it’s a blossoming category at the moment, and quality can be found across the map.
-Ethan and Hannah (Me, My Wife & Whisky)
Check out our other tasting articles:
