01/01/2020
We have all sorts of interesting and exciting things in plan for this year, from single malt releases to new clothing in the distillery shop, to great music lined up for our monthly Distillery Sessions. To stay on board with us and hear about what’s happening at the distillery first, please sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/2HriUOD.
24/12/2019
We’ve just passed cask 2000, filled last week by our distiller Dom, Whisky Director Joe, and Co-Founder David. It’s now sitting comfortably in the warehouse, not to be seen again for a while. It felt like a really good way to round off a busy year… We started 2019 as a fledgling distillery and we end it as whisky-makers. Three years of waiting came to pass in June, meaning that we really and truly had Yorkshire’s first whisky in our warehouse. Then somehow it was the autumn and we were... Read More
22/11/2019
In this month’s ‘Focus on’ we’ll be talking you through how we got to our name: Filey Bay. One of the best things about working for a small company is that it’s personal. Every member of staff (and their families!) is so closely connected to the business that everyone has thoughts and ideas. This is great, especially for things like names. What to call the whisky had been up for debate for years. We went back and forth about whether to use the distillery name as the lead (as... Read More
22/10/2019
Field to bottle is a really important phrase for us. It’s one of our most crucial points of difference and it’s totally authenticate because we’ve been farmers and connected to agriculture for far longer than we’ve been making whisky. In fact, we’ve been growing malting barley here on our farm on the Yorkshire Wolds since 1945. We understand our land and we’re always looking for new ways to farm more sustainably and ensure the farm continues to thrive long into the future. In this weekend’s Yorkshire Post, Tom and David... Read More
28/08/2019
Growing: Harvest August means one thing for farmers: harvest. The culmination of a year of growing. Here on our farm at Hunmanby Grange, harvest began little later than most, as all our crops this year are ‘spring’ varieties, meaning that they’re not planted until the spring. A bit of background The word ‘harvest’ comes from the Old English haerf-est which meant ‘autumn’ and/or ‘august’ and signified the period in the calendar when the crops had reached maturity and were ready to be gathered in. The main principles behind the harvesting... Read More
24/08/2019
We had a brilliant time at our Open Day on the 10th August. We loved seeing you all and showing you round the distillery. The Masterclasses worked really well (That coffee! That fish! That chocolate!) and it was great to see how much enthusiasm and positivity there is about what we’re doing here in Hunmanby. See you again next year!
21/08/2019
For obvious reasons, we’re big fans of Countryfile here at the Spirit of Yorkshire. And we know that we’re not alone. This week, only Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Poldark had more people watching than Countryfile, a programme dedicated to rural areas – incredible! Earlier this year, we were really pleased to hear that a northern Countryfile Live was coming to Castle Howard, near Malton, about 30 minutes drive from the distillery. And we were even more pleased when Spirit of Yorkshire and the Wold Top Brewery were asked by the Rural... Read More
26/07/2019
As an area, Yorkshire definitely ‘over indexes’ on incredible food producers, doing really interesting and exciting things. Some of these are world famous and household names but some are much smaller, founder-run businesses who excel in one area. It’s this mix that we think makes the food and drink of the county so special. Over the past few years, we’ve been partnering and collaborating with some of, we think, the best producers in the area, developing new products that fuse our spirit with their foods – ‘growing’ but from a... Read More
25/07/2019
Last Friday, the distillery turned into a hotbed of knowledge as teams competed to win the Spirit of Yorkshire quiz night. Chrissie’s questions brilliantly combined the high and the low, testing everyone’s knowledge of whisky, history, Disney and ketchup (!), with a lot of laughs and a very close scoreline at the end. We’ll be planning our next one for the autumn so keep an eye out for dates and begin assembling your best and brightest team…
24/07/2019
Joe and Libby headed way out west last week to Bradford Science and Media Museum for their ‘Lates’ evening on Thursday. ‘Lates’ at the museum happen four times a year and are adults-only events, always with a range of interesting and often unusual guests. We were really pleased to be invited as a guest at the latest ‘Lates’ and blown away by everyone’s enthusiasm and excitement about what we’re doing here at the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery. Lots of questions, tastings and interest – thank you to the museum for having... Read More
