Filey Bay from the Spirit of Yorkshire

 

The tasting in full swing

For April's tasting we were joined by one of our nearest distilleries - Spirit of Yorkshire - to give us a rundown of some of their excellent Filey Bay whiskies.

Flagship

The first single malt ever to come from Yorkshire, we've been enjoying it since it first hit shelves in 2019 (the inaugural release goes for more than a few quid at auction these days - quite a few of us in the club naturally drank ours years ago). One thing that particularly sets it apart is the field-to-bottle philosophy, with more or less everything done on the same site on the North Yorkshire coast, from growing the barley to bottling the finished product.

We got straight into it with a chance to try their main expression, the Filey Bay Flagship. Matured in ex-bourbon casks, this is the entry point to the Spirit of Yorkshire range.

Moscatel finish

A nice calibration dram to start the evening, we thought. Lovely and fruity, with a short finish. Not exactly the most challenging dram, but it's not really supposed to be. Accessible and tasty. It's 46% and you can get a bottle for £55.

We moved on to a Moscatel finish, part of the distillery's third batch of these bottles, mostly matured in ex-bourbon once again but then finished in casks which previously held Moscatel sherry from the south of Spain.

There was more going on all round with this one, while remaining an easy-to-drink dram. The finish was longer and very pleasant. Other tasting notes from members included "intense" and "chewy" and it was definitely also quite sweet. Again 46%, but this time a slightly higher price point of £60.

STR finish

For dram three we had a bottle of STR - shaved, toasted and recharred - finish. Again the third batch of these from the distillery, the STR technique is a way of rejuvenating ex-red wine casks (in this case Rioja), pioneered by the late whisky guru Dr Jim Swan who advised Spirit of Yorkshire in its early days, among many others from the new breed of modern distilleries.

We got pepper and fruit on this one. It was creamy and smooth to taste, reminiscent of old style boiled sweets such as Werther's Originals. "You could easily get very drunk on this" someone suggested, although of course we could never condone that sort of behaviour. A bit chocolatey too. It's 46% and also costs £60, perhaps the high point of the opening trio.

Port finish

After a half-time break for everyone to recharge their glasses downstairs at the Briton's Protection, we were all back for the second part of the tasting.

Our fourth whisky was a port finish, from the first batch of this expression produced by the distillery, using port casks to add a different twist to the standard ex-bourbon liquid.

Those Portuguese Ruby port casks really did the job. This was more complex than the previous drams, we thought, with a velvet, creamy sort of taste to it, along with the sort of red fruits and berries you'd expect from a port cask. Lots of the club members enjoyed this one the most of those so far. It's 46% again, and costs a touch more at £65.

Double Oak

On to the Filey Bay Double Oak Batch 2 next, matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and virgin oak casks.

Or to put it another way, this was the "Flagship on steroids". Creamy again, but like cream soda this time. Big tasting, and it went down very well, no mean feat as it can be tricky to get it right when using virgin oak because it can give such a powerful and distinctive flavour. Again 46%, this is available for £75.

All too quickly it was the final dram of the evening. And we had something a bit special lined up, with the distillery's Yorkshire Day release from 2022. As ever, my notes are a bit vague by this stage of the evening, and so all I've really got about the content of the bottle is that it is a "vatting of different stuff". In reality, it's a vatting of whisky from ex-bourbon, ex-Moscatel and ex-Oloroso sherry casks.

Yorkshire Day 2022

In terms of what we actually thought, I've written "this is the high point - superb stuff". And that's about it. I did bring a bottle home with me though, courtesy of the folks from Aston's of Manchester who were there as well. If you've never been, their shop in the Royal Exchange is a real trove of great whisky, and much else besides.

As for the Yorkshire Day 2022 release, it's no longer available from the Spirit of Yorkshire website, but you might be lucky and find one on an auction site somewhere. The distillery brings out a special release each Yorkshire Day though, so keep an eye out for this year's (it's August 1st by the way).

To the dram of the night voting then, and even though number six did indeed attract some support it was in fact dram four - the Port finish - which took the honours with 14 votes. The STR finish was second, with Yorkshire Day 2022 in third.

Thanks to all at Spirit of Yorkshire, Aston's and of course the Briton's Protection for all helping put on such a great evening with some top quality whisky - and thanks to all club members and their guests for attending another successful tasting.

The full line-up