ELLC reveals revamped whisky bottle

The East London Liquor Company (ELLC) has unveiled its new-look, lightweight glass whisky bottle.

The new-look bottle is part of the distillery’s ongoing commitment to reduce the environmental impact of its products and represents a dramatic reduction in the bottle’s carbon footprint.

Tom Hills, operations director and head distiller, who led the project, said: “The climate crisis is at the forefront of our minds and our primary focus for the coming years is to make changes to the way we operate to minimise our impact on the environment.

“The new bottle and natural cork stopper mean we’ve achieved a 60% reduction in the carbon footprint of those parts of the pack, which is a great start, but we have much more do to as a company and many more plans to improve our environmental credentials in the pipeline.”

The development accompanies plans to significantly increase the volume of whisky being released over the coming years, which comes off the back of major investments in new equipment and capacity over the last four years, following two highly successful crowdfunding campaigns.

“The whisky we are producing is as delicious as ever,” Hills continued, “only now it’s available in a bottle that’s better for the planet and better for your wallet. ”

The first release for 2022 is the London Rye Whisky, which delivers tasting notes including hints of tar, spice, peppercorns, lemon citrus, caramel and cocoa.

Andrew Mooney, distillery manager, described the new release as “big, round and bold, just like a rye whisky should be, but at the same time it’s got unique fruit-forward chocolate biscuit notes thanks to the inclusion of malted barley”.

He added: “This year’s London rye is basically a hybrid of a malt and a rye but to us it’s much more than that. It’s been made 100% grain to glass on site. This is our highest rye mash bill to date and also comes with the introduction of Hungarian oak into our cask repertoire.”

Alex Wolpert, ELLC founder, commented: “Since 2014, whisky has been a central part of our output as a distillery. From transatlantic collaborations with Sonoma Distilling Co to our core single malt and rye bottles that have built our reputation for great tasting whisky from the new school.

“We exist to challenge the status quo and to dive deep in the search for great flavour.

“Now that we’ve reached our eighth year we enter a new phase with significantly more whisky available that lets us reach a much wider audience. The new-look bottle celebrates that fact and delivers a more sustainable pack at a sharper retail price.”

The London Rye release will be closely followed by the launch of East London Single Malt in June. Early tastings have revealed notes of soft toffee, buttery chocolate hobnobs and hay.

The visual aspects of the whisky bottle and label redesign were undertaken by Ragged Edge, who handled the distillery’s 2020 rebrand, launched in a bid to refocus attention onto the liquids created by the brand.