A different spin on the distillery tour, in that rather than a standard tour guide (usual attire at the large Scottish tours include tartan skirt, blue jumper, a branded rain jacket or fleece and name tag) after a short video (I have seen better) the distiller comes and talks to you about the distillery and the process and then leads you around the small site. I really enjoyed this interaction with the person who actually makes the whisky. This particular distiller had been working in the brewing industry prior to coming to St Georges just a few years previously. He was not born in a cottage on the site. He also discussed St Georges water source, a hard water at 360 ppm Calcium, which is very different to the soft water espoused in Scotland. Even Glenmorangie who famously use "hard water" in Scotland only has 160 ppm Calcium. The process, other than aforementioned water hardness, is exactly the same as the major distilleries in Scotland with pot still double distillation at its core (unlike Penderyn) and as far as I could tell it would meet all criteria for being single malt scotch whisky if the whole operation was transplanted north of the border. The other difference is they claim due to warmer climate in Norfolk, the whisky matures quicker so even the young expressions were comparable to the 10 to 12 years single malts from Scotland.
At the end of tour we tasted both the peated and non-peated expressions and I bought a bottle of Chapter 9, the peated one, and if you want you can read my review (3 out of 4stars). I liked them both. English whisky can be good. I also a bought a coffee mug with the words "I would be rather be drinking English whisky" but that has since gone missing from my office!
I later realised that I had now visited a distillery in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (Jameson) and only a trip to Bushmills in Northern Ireland would be required to complete a distillery visit in every country in the British Isles.
