This St. George’s day post goes to one of my favourite new distilleries of recent years!
We have seen the team at the White Peak distillery experimenting with numerous different cask types, yeast types, and bottling strengths, but here we have an experiment in the whisky making process itself!
One of the early experiments that the team considered was the use of the “petites eaux” process traditionally used in the making of Armagnac and Cognac. This involves aging some low alcohol spirit in the usual wooden casks and then using this “little water” in the dilution process to determine the final bottling strength. The experiment has found that additional flavours from those casks can be uncovered that the higher strength spirit cannot achieve.
“We’ve used the petites eaux as part of a vatting to build in the nuances of flavour and aroma from accessing the range of flavours available in the cask.“
Max Vaughan (White Peak Distillery Founder)
As ever, the White Peak team have given as much transparency as possible with the process used to make this particular limited batch edition of Wire Works “Special Waters”
Cask Type: 19-256 STR AO (American Oak). Location – upper dunnage, higher average temp, lower humidity.
Petites Eaux: low strength spirit aged in refill STR and ex-bourbon. Location – main still house.
The final batch has produced a limited 393 bottles, with a final 57.3% ABV (that’s after this special dilution!) and is going, going, gone… sold out almost instantly at £90 per 70cl bottle – now just available in selected bars who were able to nab a few of the precious bottles!
Nose
Once again the White Peak distillery presents us with a high 50+% finish which is totally manageable and doesn’t smell too strong or overpowering. This delivers a huge fruit content and I am instantly reminded of Fruit Salad sweets and Juicy Fruit chewing gum. Tropical fruits aplenty,l with pineapple, mango, and pineapple, all served with a little dunnage style funk. The underlying light peat note is still detectable and the oak provides a sort of pencil shaving note and some final rich oak spice.
Taste
The tropical fruit flavours arrive at first before a meaty combo of maple and bacon builds up along with a white pepper spicy heat – your tastebuds are suitably tantalised here.
Finish
Sweet and savoury in equal measure with a lip smacking finish.
Verdict
Hats off to Max, Claire, and the team. Using some of the flexibility in the whisky making processes that might not be permitted north of the border means that there’s more room for growth and experimentation. This is another experiment that has paid off. Bear in mind that they have deliberately filled casks with spirits that they cannot sell as whisky in order to make this, then there is a commercial commitment to this experiment here. One that pays off. Sure, there’s a higher tariff of the cost of such an experiment to the consumer, but at this present moment, that kind of tariff (now a dirty word) doesn’t seem too bad… nor has it seemingly hindered anyone from snapping up the limited quantity available!
A sweet, rich, and savoury experiment delivered at another dangerously palatable strength that has extra layers of flavour and texture to their other wares. Delicious. Special indeed.
M
Dram disclosure: This sample was received as part of a promotional Tweet Tasting event led by TheWhiskyWire using #WireWorksWhisky on X and BlueSky. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
whisky unplugged 
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