The English Whisky Distillery Tour Reviews[photos]-Outside Cambridge
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It’s not Scotch, but there’s The English Whisky Distillery in England (outside Cambridge), so we went to visit.
It takes about two hours even from Stansted Airport, north of London.
When we went, there was only one train a day that stopped at the nearest station — they were even worried about whether it was really okay for us to get off here.
We enjoyed an atmosphere a little different from Scotland, so let me tell you about it.
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Features of the Distillery
Founded in Norfolk in eastern England, this distillery was officially opened in 2006 by Prince Charles, and casks owned by King Charles are still matured here today.
It’s a malt distillery using 100% barley malt as its only raw material. The barley comes in two types: non-peated and heavily peated. The heavily peated malt is powerful, with a phenol level of 50 ppm.
One slightly unusual thing is that after mixing the ground malt with hot water and finishing the mash, the standing time before they begin filtering the first wort is longer than the usual 15–30 minutes — a longer 1 to 1.5 hours.
During this time, the conversion of starch into sugars and the breakdown of proteins into amino acids progress, so fermentation moves quickly once yeast is added to the wort.
There are three stainless-steel washbacks.
Fermentation takes 2–3 days, reaching 7–8% alcohol. Heating for both the first and second distillation is by steam. The maturation casks are bourbon and sherry.
The flavor is soft, clean, sweet, and well balanced. The three-year-old matured in bourbon casks adds vanilla, soft cream, a slightly grainy note, and spice to that — refined for such a young malt.
The smoky one is similarly floral, creamy, and sweet, but with smokiness added, striking a curious balance with the sweetness.
Location / Access
It’s about a 10-minute walk from a station called Harling Road.
We stayed in a town called Thetford and took the train from there — only one a day.
When we bought our tickets at the station, they asked what time train we’d take back. Of course we’d looked it up, and once we told them, they seemed reassured — but they were really worried about us.
When we got off at Harling Road, the station staff also worried whether we really meant to get off there, and once we said we were going to the distillery, they understood! lol
Apart from the distillery, there was nothing within walking distance in the town.
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The Distillery’s Exterior
It was a simple, lovely building.
On the opposite side from the distillery there was also a restaurant, and since we had time before our train, we went twice! lol
The Tour We Joined
Having seen so many big distilleries in Scotland, we were really surprised at how compact it was.
We did the tasting in the space next to the shop.
There were lots of historic whiskies connected to the royal family on display, and there were even ones we happened to own ourselves — it was really fun just looking.
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Shop and Restaurant
The shop was spacious too, and after the tour you could also do a tasting at the shop’s till.
We arrived at an absurdly early hour, and after the tour we stayed in the restaurant right up until closing.
Honestly, there hadn’t been many meals that excited us while in Britain, so the food here was really delicious and moving.
Summary
It has a different feel from Scotch, and honestly, when we went back to Scotland and talked about English whisky, we could sense a bit of an “that’s not Scotch” attitude.
But each has its own differences, and for us it was a really enjoyable time.
Since it’s in the Cambridge area, it’s easy to get to if you’re in England, so I’d recommend it.