M&S to sell own brand English whisky

The English whisky industry is set to receive a significant boost following the announcement that retail giant Marks & Spencer to stock its own brand.

3,000 bottles of Fine Single Malt English Whisky will be available to buy at M&S from this week onwards

Ready to go on sale across the country this week, 3,000 bottles of Fine Single Malt English Whisky has been exclusively created for the retailer by the English Whisky Company at Norfolk’s St George Distillery.

Following the decision to start distilling English whisky in 2005, the distillery, said to be the first English whisky distillery in over 100 years, now produces 150,000 bottles a year, some of which are exported to the US.

Andrew Nelstrop, the company’s managing director, told The Times: “This is the first time we have bottled for one of the big six supermarkets. We have always sold under our own brand before.”

Of the distillery’s decision to start producing English whisky, he said: “We used to have a barley farm and my grandfather would always say that it was a shame it had to go to Scotland to come back as anything useful.”

Said to have light and gentle flavours with a “hint of smoke”, Fine Single Malt English Whisky is bottled at 40% abv.

Nelstrop added: “When you go into a spirits store, you usually see a wall of Scotch, a shelf each of Irish and Japanese whisky and then everything else as ‘other’. I want English whisky to have its own shelf.”