Cotswolds’s New English Whisky Uses Barley From King Charles’s Estate
When it comes to whisky made in the U.K., scotch is obviously the first thing that comes to mind for most people. But there is also single malt whisky being made specifically in England, with estimates of more than a billion dollars worth of casks currently maturing there and an impending geographical indication for the category. One of the best known English producers is Cotswolds Distillery, which recently released a new whisky with a royal pedigree.
Cotswolds Distillery is located in the namesake Cotswolds, a region in western England that is known for its scenic countryside. New Yorker Dan Szor founded the company in 2014 after he decided to leave his Wall Street finance days behind and turn to spirits—specifically making gin and single malt whisky, the latter of which was first released in 2017. While there has been some pushback from the scotch whisky industry, the GI standards for English whisky, should they be codified, would be as follows: whisky produced in England and aged for a minimum of three years, and single malt that obeys the same rules but is made from 100 percent malted barley in copper pot stills.
Cotswolds Distillery’s whisky, which meets these guidelines, is anchored by a core single malt expression, the first to be distilled in the region. The Signature Single Malt is made from locally grown barley, aged in STR (shaved, toasted, re-charred) ex-red wine barriques, blended with whisky matured in ex-bourbon barrels, and bottled without chill filtration and with natural color. This new release is called Highgrove Evergreen, and as mentioned before it has some royal ties that make it stand out. It was distilled from Plumage Archer barley, a varietal grown on the Highgrove Estate where King Charles III has his private residence, making it in essence a single-estate whisky. Like the core expression, it was aged in ex-bourbon and red wine barrels for a minimum of three years.
“When I first purchased Plumage Archer barley from the Highgrove Estate many years ago, I could never have imagined it would grow into a collaboration of this scale,” said Szor in a statement. “Highgrove Evergreen marks a remarkable milestone for our distillery and for the continued evolution of the English whisky category. We look forward to sharing this release with the proud British public, and eventually with international markets as well, particularly the United States as we set our sights on key regions for 2026.”
Proceeds from the sale of Highgrove Evergreen (SRP £100) will go to benefit The King’s Foundation and its education and training initiatives, and each bottle comes in a box with a reproduction of King Charles’s 1995 painting A View from the Wildflower Meadow. While the whisky has not yet arrived here in the U.S., you can find Cotwolds’s core expression available to purchase at websites like Total Wine now.
