Cotswolds Distillery is a fantastic English producer of both whisky and gin. Surrounded by some of the UK’s most idyllic landscapes, the distillery is the brainchild of founder Daniel Szor, who moved to the Cotswolds after a career in finance in London. Whilst looking at the fields of golden barley that surrounded his house, he realized that nobody was distilling the grain and decided that he would be the first. He found a derelict site near his house and soon the building of what would become Cotswolds Distillery was underway. The doors to the distillery first opened in July 2014.
The distillery was built under the guidance of Harry Cockburn, Bowmore’s former Distillery Manager, and Dr. Jim Swan, otherwise known as ‘the Einstein of whisky’ due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of the science behind distillation and maturation. The plan was to combine the highest quality equipment, beautiful locally sourced ingredients, and traditional production methods to create truly spectacular whisky. True to this final point, the distillery follows a traditional malting process at Warminster Maltings, Britain’s oldest working maltings, where the team use the same techniques that they’ve followed for hundreds of years.
Also true to form, the distillery uses 100% locally grown barley from the nearby Blenheim estate in the Cotswolds. It has always been of utmost importance in the team to spotlight the phenomenal produce of the region and allow the grains to form the foundation of the whisky’s flavour.
All whisky produced at the Cotswolds Distillery is then filled into different types of oak casks to rest, which is then placed in the warehouses where it is left for years to mature. The distillery team will regularly taste samples from each cask and once deemed perfect, the whisky is bottled and shared with the world.
This brings us to our February 2025 Discovery whisky, Cotswolds Signature Single Malt! This incredible expression was initially released in October 2017 after three years of anticipation following the distillery’s opening. Here’s what the distillery has to say about it:
“Belonging to our Classics Collection, our Signature Single Malt favours the rich and bold fruity notes which result from maturation in our highly active STR ex-red wine barriques. Blended with whisky matured in premium first-fill ex-Bourbon barrels, this single malt has notes of honey, red fruits, and a hint of treacle.”
It is the first ever whisky to be distilled in the Cotswolds and it remains at the very heart of the distillery. We’re lucky enough to be sampling it this month, and we have to say, it’s a real stunner!