New Lake District whisky distillery launches founders club

A new English whisky distillery has launched a Founders’ Club to help raise funds prior to distillation starting next year.

The Lakes Distillery, the first whisky distillery to open in England’s Lake District in over a century, is giving consumers the chance to own some of its first bottles of whisky, as well as other special offers and discounts, for a one-off payment of £595. The first 100 casks produced each year will also be set aside exclusively for Founders’ Club members.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” said Paul Currie, co-founder of the Isle of Arran distillery in Scotland and founder of the Lakes Distillery. “I am confident that the whisky we produce here will be among the finest in the world for a number of reasons.

“Our water flows from a source at Sprinkling Tarn – one of the most beautiful tarns, or lakes, in Cumbria – through the foothills of Scafell Pike which are rich in peat and will give the whisky its unique flavor and depth.  Combine that with the purity of the air and you have the perfect raw ingredients for distilling whisky.”

The £2.5m distillery is being built at the site of a former Victorian farm at the edge of Bassenthwaite Lake in the National Park itself, which in the 1800s was rich with illicit whisky production thanks to the area’s hilly terrain and abundance of rivers.

The farm buildings will contain two stills with a relatively small capacity of 3,500 litres designed to produce a lighter style whisky. Currie is joined by former Diageo whisky bod Alan Rutherford, who will oversee production.

Development of the site is due to take pace this autumn, with production kicking off in summer 2014. While Currie waits for the whisky to mature, it will produce Lakes Gin from a third, smaller pot still using local botanicals.

With 18 million visitors passing through the National Park every year, Lakes Distillery will have its visitors’ centre up and running by the end of 2013.