The Spirit of Yorkshire

Cask 1944, Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery 06/06/2019

Living: 1944 cask for Yorkshire Regiment officers

75 years ago today (6th June 1944) marks what was, many would say, the major turning point of World War Two. Allied forces landed on 5 beaches across the northern coast of France, and the course of the war changed significantly. Two regiments from Yorkshire were crucial to the assault on ‘Gold’ beach – the Green Howards, and the East Yorkshire regiment. In fact, the only Victoria Cross awarded to the D Day campaign went to Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis, from 6th Battalion Green Howards. Given that Winston Churchill described... Read More

Growing: Three Years

It’s been 3 years since our stills were first fired in May 2016 and the very first casks of Yorkshire whisky were laid down. Since then our 2016 casks have been patiently waiting in our warehouse, each day edging closer to becoming whisky. In celebration of our first distillations reaching the crucial whisky milestone of 3 years, for this month’s ‘focus on’ we’re looking back, with a touch of nostalgia (forgive us), at the last few years and discussing the maturation requirement: why it’s relevant and why we’re choosing to... Read More

Enjoying: Tour de Yorkshire Pairing Evening

It’s not often you get the world’s best cyclists coming through the village, so to celebrate the Tour de Yorkshire Women’s and Men’s races flying through Hunmanby, we hosted a pairing evening on the Friday evening before. 6 drams were paired with 6 types of produce, all from along the route of the tour and all from producers for whom provenance is of the utmost importance. 45 people packed out the Pot Still Coffee Shop and the team here at Spirit of Yorkshire each took a turn to introduce the... Read More

Living: Favourite Yorkshire Places – NYMR

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs from Pickering to Whitby in full steam style, stopping at stations across the moors. It’s been used in countless films, is always exciting to see or travel on, and showcases some of the most beautiful places on the moors. One of our favourite stations is Newtondale Halt – you have to request the stop and there’s nothing there but a platform, but it leads to stunning walks and a real sense of peace. Photo credit: NYMR

Enjoying: Taking the train to Hunmanby

We really appreciate that one of the few challenges with whisky tours is that, usually, someone has to drive. Drivers drams are available but equally, it’s nice to be able to enjoy the tastings with your friends in the moment at the Distillery. To help with this, we’ve been working with the team at Hunmanby station to match up the best trains to go with our tours so that you can travel from Scarborough, Seamer and Filey, (or Bridlington, Driffield and Hull in the other direction), without worrying about driving... Read More

Growing: Grow Yorkshire

Both Tom and David, our two co-founders, have agricultural backgrounds and both are passionate about evolving farming to be relevant to today, rather than just doing things because it’s how they’ve always been done. It’s what led Tom to set up the Wold Top Brewery (our sister brewery) in 2003, and what then gave both Tom and David the idea of the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery a decade later. Grow Yorkshire is a great new initiative focused on inspiring Yorkshire farmers to grow their businesses beyond the usual – they... Read More

Planting barley at Hunmanby Grange 09/04/2019

Growing: Barley

Over the next few months on our blog we’ll be focusing on key production areas at our distillery. First up: Barley. We’re in a pretty unique position as whisky distilleries go, ‘field-to-bottle’ production in the whisky industry is a real rarity. Field-to-bottle to us means that every drop of spirit that runs from our stills can be traced back to the fields on our farm so naturally, as you might expect, we take barley seriously. This unique perspective allows us to look at barley with three hats on so to... Read More

Enjoying: Whisky and Chocolate

Sounds delicious right? Right! Max (from Bullion Chocolate) and Joe, our Whisky Director, spent a Friday night in March pairing chocolate with whisky and discussing why they go so well together. Bullion are craft chocolatiers from Sheffield and their ethos echoes our – a meticulous obsession with creating an incredible product, from start to finish. 

Enjoying: Radio York’s “Bek by the Sea”

We’re based right on the coast and we love it. So we were really pleased to welcome Bek Homer to the Distillery to feature on her “Bek by the Sea” show on Radio York. Bek chatted to nearly all of the team, and some members of the public, about all the different aspects of making, selling and enjoying whisky, as well as the other things that we do here at the Spirit of Yorkshire. And it was extra special as Bek lives in Hunmanby too, so she’d actually walked over... Read More

Enjoying: The Tour de Yorkshire at the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery

The Tour de Yorkshire will pass through Hunmanby on stage 3 (4th May), as it takes a very circuitous route from Bridlington to Scarborough (definitely not just going straight along the A165!) We’re big fans of cycling here at the Spirit of Yorkshire and we’re thrilled that Hunmanby features on the course again – it’s not often you get world class cyclists flying through the village – and so we’ve got a few things planned in honour of the event…  Key times: the women will pass through the village at around 9am, with... Read More