Ad Gefrin launches Tácnbora Cognac Finish Whisky

Ad Gefrin returns with another Anglo-Scottish blend – Tácnbora Cognac Finish Whisky – and it’s landed at MoM Towers. 

The arrival of a new whisky offers the perfect excuse to explore not just the whisky, but the Northumbrian distillery making waves by reaching into the deep past to shape its identity within English whisky.

Tácnbora

Tácnbora’s name comes from the Old English word for “standard bearer”, or the person who marched ahead of Northumbrian kings in all their finery. You can glean the ambition Ad Gefrin has for the range from that choice. 

Blended and finished in Northumberland, Tácnbora combines selected Scotch and Irish whiskies and matures them further in selected casks. 

This latest edition has been finished for six months in Cognac barrels, with just six casks bottled at cask strength (58.6% ABV), non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. 

It follows the sell-out success of the Tácnbora Peated Islay Cask release from October 2023, which disappeared by January. Safe to say, the appetite for Ad Gefrin’s small-batch experiments is growing, and at those cask numbers, there’s a good chance this edition won’t stick around long either.

What is Ad Gefrin?

Ad Gefrin isn’t your average new-wave distillery. It’s part stillhouse, part time machine, part Bernard Cornwell fantasy. Situated in Wooler, on the edge of Northumberland National Park, the combined distillery and museum draws inspiration from a nearby 7th-century Anglo-Saxon royal court.

Archaeological digs in the 1950s revealed a complex comparable in scale and significance to Sutton Hoo. Today, Ad Gefrin combines immersive storytelling, including a reconstructed Great Hall, with rare artefacts and artefact loans from national institutions. The distillery breathes life into 1,400-year-old Northumbrian hospitality, pairing ancient kinship values with modern whisky craft. 

“The distillery allows us to have an innovative, sustainable museum that showcases the archaeology of one of the most important royal complexes from the Anglo-Saxon world,” says Chris Ferguson, director of visitor experience. 

They explain that, despite this being a region where some of the most important events in British history occurred, there was never a place to tell this story. “Now, we can bring the stories of the people who lived in Northumbria 1,400 years ago to life, alongside the archaeological material,” Ferguson explains.

How history is shaping the whisky of the future

The history of Northumbria shapes the distillery, with archaeology’s influence extending beyond the aesthetic. “The landscape of Northumbria, especially the coastal plains and the Tweed Valley leading to the wide valley at the foot of ancient Ad Gefrin, was hugely agriculturally productive 1,400 years ago, and still is today. The main crops that sustained the ancient kingdom were barley, rye, and oats, with an emphasis on barley,” Ferguson says. “These ancient growing practices, and the same fields, influence the farmers and distillers of our region. We are constantly looking back at our heritage through archaeology to see if we can be inspired and draw direct influences into our distilling process.” 

The Anglo-Saxon approach to hospitality is also brought to life at Ad Gefrin, once a great hall similar to Heorot (from Beowulf), where deeply communal rituals were held. These central gathering places were cradles of kinship, loyalty, and storytelling, forged over shared cups of mead or ale. The host’s duty was to provide drink, warmth, and protection, honouring both guest and community. Good dinner party advice today. 

Drinking was often ceremonial. “The symbel (or sumble) was a formal ritual where a drinking horn or cup was passed around, accompanied by boasts, toasts, and oaths, rituals that strengthened social bonds and established one’s honour and identity,” Ferguson explains. “The hlaford (host) was judged by their generosity. Offering a drink was a moral duty and a sign of social standing, led by the cup-bearer, usually the Queen or a woman of high status”.

Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Distillery takes inspiration from these celebratory convictions. “The modern ‘dram’ is less about drinking in solitude and more about shared experiences together. This is a return to slow, intentional drinking as a means of connection and bringing people together,” Ferguson says. “The Old English Wes Hal (Good Health) toast is central to this. Northumbrian hospitality then, and now, is about celebrating, and remembering, with those close to us”. 

What makes Ad Gefrin different: Place, history and flavour

Place, history, and flavour each shape the decisions made at Ad Gefrin, but it’s where they intersect that the distillery finds its distinctive voice. “Our ‘place’ is a key part of what we do,” says Ben Murphy, director of distilling. “We are very lucky to be located in an area that can supply us with the world-class ingredients we need for our single malt, water and malted barley. Our distillery is entirely supplied by a borehole which is fed by the Cheviot hills behind us, while our barley is grown by named farmers in the fields and valleys around us and malted in Berwick-upon-Tweed by Simpson Malt (only 15 miles away).”

Flavour is the ultimate goal for any distiller, of course, and you’ll be pleased to know Ad Gefrin makes no compromises on the journey there. “Producing a great-tasting product is what we are here to do, and our distillery is all about that. It is why we have wooden washbacks, why we use the yeast that we do, the cut points that we make and the wood we choose to age our spirit in. All of these decisions play a part in shaping that flavour and creating Ad Gefrin Single Malt.”

But it’s the ability to dig into the rich history of Ad Gefrin that truly sets it apart from its English whisky-making peers. “Not only is our project helping to shed new light on a time in history that is culturally rich and important, it also looks at slightly more recent history and the relationship of this area to whisky,” Murphy explains. “Whilst gin and brandy were big in the South in Hogarth’s 18th century, there was more of a love for whisky in Northumberland, with illicit stills being run up in the hills and local grocers making their own blends.”

Tácnbora and beyond

Tácnbora has been our clearest glimpse yet into Ad Gefrin’s creative instincts, not just a standard English whisky bottling, but part of a broader, more ambitious vision that also includes a whisky cream liqueur (a move more distilleries should make, frankly, they’re affordable, delicious, and an easy gateway into whisky). 

But it leaves one big question hanging: what will Ad Gefrin’s Northumbrian single malt taste like when it finally arrives? Will it echo the approachable, characterful style of Tácnbora, or carve out something entirely its own?

“We are very proud of Tácnbora (our inaugural blend, our “standard bearer”) and how well it has been received in the community. However, it was not created to be a representative of what our single malt will taste like; that was something we felt would be too limiting to do, especially as at the point of recipe creation, the distillery was still under construction. Instead, Tácnbora reflects our story and the journey of flavour we are on,” Murphy explains.

Ad Gefrin single malt will be a whisky that is a showcase of time and place. From the ingredients chosen to the distillery design, the approach to fermentation is all geared to create rich new make to be amplified in ageing. “Flavour is everything, and the quality of our process and ingredients reflects that,” Murphy explains. “We are ‘Distilling Northumberland’, and being in the far North of England, our climate is the same as the Borders of Scotland, with colder winters and milder summers than our colleagues further south”. In fact, Northumberland is further north than Campbeltown. 

Ad Gefrin within English whisky

Which is not to say that Ad Gefrin is pitching for Scotch whisky-style production regions. “As for carving out a region, I don’t think we are the ones to say, we believe that the whisky profiles in England are unique to each distillery, and the way they make use of their location is up to them,” Murphy says. “Assigning categories is going to take a long time, and it will likely be difficult to try and define the English whisky scene in that way. It is all very exciting and we can’t wait to see the future of English whisky in the years to come”.

So, how does Ad Gefrin view itself in the wider English whisky movement – as a leader, an outlier, or something else entirely?

“We are part of a growing and exciting category that has room for all members and their individual ways of going about their craft.  We are at the heart of that, and it is a very exciting time to be a part of English whisky”. 

Tácnbora Cognac Finish Whisky review

So what we have here is a wealth of history, stretching from the hospitality of the Anglo-Saxon palace to illicit stills in sheep sheds. Wrapped into the identity is a sense of place, built onto that is a thoughtful approach to flavour. In the fast-growing world of English whisky, carving out a distinct space isn’t easy. But some distilleries have Saxon smiths to forge their path.

And what of Tácnbora Cognac Finish Whisky? Bottled at cask strength with no chill filtration or colouring, it’s a silky blend where bourbon cask sweetness is seasoned with floral, spicy Cognac notes, not overwhelmed by them. It’s pleasant and surprisingly graceful given its strength, and I enjoyed drinking it. Which is basically the point, isn’t it? 

Wæs þu hæl!

Tácnbora Cognac Finish Whisky tasting note:

Nose: Rich and rounded with honey, clover, and custard creams. Raisins and apricot jam, underpinned by hints of sandalwood and sweet pipe tobacco.

Palate: Thick and waxy. Fudge, dried fruit, orange oil, and a thread of old leather. Some oak resin and toasted nutmeg develop with time in the glass.

Finish: Lingering sweetness with gorse flower, honeyed malt, and a dusting of sawdust.

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