Founded in 2014, the Cotswolds Distillery is situated in the heart of England, within the picturesque Cotswolds region. This region has been designated an AONB – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – since 1966. The distillery is one of the few in England to specialise in the production of single malt whisky. This is particularly remarkable given that, for almost a century, there was no home-grown single malt south of the Scottish border.

The distinctive fruitiness of the new make spirit is attributable to the use of two specific yeast strains, a 90-hour fermentation process and the precise ‘heart cut’. For this special edition, the new make was matured in so-called STR casks made from American white oak. STR stands for ‘Shaved, Toasted and Re-charred’, a process developed for Cotswolds by the late Dr Swan.

Thanks to this innovative process, the American white oak casks – previously filled with red wine – were able to impart an intense aroma and a deep colour to the whisky within a short space of time. After several years of maturation, a selection of these casks was chosen for this bottling, with the English distillery opting not to use chill filtration or add any colouring agents.