Their mission is to create approachable, easy-drinking spirits with layers of complexity. They agreed that Abhi should focus entirely on making the very best spirit possible – virtually unconstrained by commercial considerations. Every step of the process (including growing the grain, of course) is slow. Mashing-in takes place at a comparatively low temperature and so takes longer than usual and fermentation takes place over seven days.
With an obsessive attention to detail and desire to control all of the inputs, founders Matthew and Abhi personally visited cooperages in Europe and the US before identifying the one they felt most closely resembled their craft ethos.
Being in the south east of England they experience some of the UK’s warmest weather and the distillery, where the filled whisky barrels are stored for the first year, can reach temperatures up to 40 degrees in the summer. The leads to a significant ‘angels’ share’, but appears to have helped the sense of ageing in the spirit.
Finally, approaching the marrying process with no sense of rushing the liquid’s development created an exceptional whisky. So the distillery take as long as the whisky takes in marrying before bottling and this can be up to six weeks.
Their approach to whisky at this stage is to create three core expressions of Masthouse Whisky – Single Malt, Column Malt (a single malt with the second distillation in the column) and Grain Whisky. These are released annually as single estate, single harvest or vintage whiskies. This will offer the chance to experience Masthouse Whisky’s variations according to the batch process and the chance to get to know its distinctive, easy-drinking, fruity, floral character.