Forget your Ginuary.
My first assignment of a new year took me to the Lake District, the traditional domain of Romantic Poets and Gore-Tex botherers, for a wee dram.
The Lakes Distillery [pictured above] is to release this summer the first 101 bottles of the Lakes Single Malt, a limited edition whisky and Cumbria’s first in a century.
I travelled to the western Lakes, making base in Cockermouth, to find out more about a spirit-distilling tradition that dates back to the days of smugglers and bootleggers on the shores of Lake Bassenthwaite.
The article was commissioned by Immediate Media and will appear in magazines from March.
Here’s a preview:
The growth of The Lakes Distillery has coincided with the ongoing British spirits revival, making it the biggest of just 15 whisky distilleries in England and Wales.
Indeed, the spirits industry generates £9.8bn in UK sales with spirits now enjoyed by 43 per cent of British adults, according to The Wine and Spirit Trade Association 2016.
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