England has a far longer history of whisky distillation than most people realise, alas this came to a halt with the closure of Lea Valley Distillery in 1903. After decades of slumber years English whisky began anew when the St George’s distillery opened and production began again. Since then a dozen distilleries have begun production and more are planned.

The standouts for now are the English Whisky, and Norfolk grain whiskies from the St George’s distillery, and virtually anything from the Cotswolds distillery. Bimber and the Copper Rivet distillery are well worth watching as well, though their products are on the young side for now. As a rule offerings from English distilleries are small scale and tend to be somewhat expensive compared to their larger scale Scottish counterparts. So if you’re looking for the best value for money you may want to look north of the border for now.