Wire Works Whisky unplugged: the story of English whisky’s brightest spark

When Max Vaughan came home one evening after meeting someone making whisky in England and suggested to his wife, Claire, that they should start doing it themselves, the idea was somewhat of a pipe dream. 

But fast forward to 2024, and the White Peak Distillery is now an honest-to-goodness distillery with a range of signature Wire Work whisky releases, alongside gin and rum. 

Rewind more than a decade, and Vaughan’s story goes that having discovered whisky being made in England, he became fascinated with the idea that he could join the distillers club. A lifelong whisky fan thanks to his father, Vaughan was very much an enthusiast at the time. Over the following few years, he and Claire delved into the details of what it would mean to leave their day jobs and set up shop. 

In 2016, after gaining enough funding, they went full throttle and founded the White Peak Distillery in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Both are originally from the area so it made sense to take their young family back to the land from which they came to build the new family business. The couple named the distillery after the southern half of the mountain range they can see from the site.

Adding to the English whisky tapestry

Situated inside a former Wire Works – which was highly successful in the late 1800s, employing more than 500 people from the local area – the couple decided to name their whisky brand in honour of its past. The site is based along the River Derwent in amongst ancient woodland, making for a particularly picturesque set-up. 

Whilst a main reason for returning to the area was due to their own connections to the land, there were also good marketing reasons for it – other distilleries in England which have been established in the last decade, such as the incredibly popular Cotswolds Distillery or The Lakes, are located in areas where there is a natural amount of tourist footfall. With over 30 million visitors to the Peak District each year, it made sense to capitalise on the local tourist thoroughfare that they found themselves in. 

But there was also a deep desire from the start to do things in their own way. There is no real history of distilling in Derbyshire, but there is a strong connection to brewing, with the famous brewery town of Burton-on-Trent just south of the distillery. Vaughan has cited conversations with American whiskey maker Chip Tate – with whom he spent many days in the US learning about distilling – as to how he landed on a concept that would make them stand out. 

Brewing up Wire Works Whisky

Today they lean into the history of brewing – which is said to date back to the 11th century in Burton-on-Trent – by using spent brewer’s yeast for their fermentations. Every week, the team goes and collects the yeast which is then used in relatively long fermentations, creating a true connection with the local area. Everything is matured and bottled on-site by the team, which now numbers 25 employees. 

The company – while young – began to build its reputation early on, visiting whisky shows to talk about its plans and showcase its new make spirit and early-aged spirits. When they eventually launched their first single malt whisky in 2022, they had a queue of people stretched the length of the building and beyond. 

The distillery makes several products including the Shining Cliff Gin named after the Shining Cliff Woodland which is just behind the Wire Works building. Made by vapour distilling 13 botanicals, including local rosehip, the gin is made on a hand-built 600-litre spirit still called Betty Kenny – named in honour of an ancient yew tree in the woods with the same moniker based on a lady who lived in the forest with her husband and eight children. Whilst the tree was partly destroyed by fire in the 1930s, visitors to the distillery are invited to go and see it while on site. 

Other products include the White Peak Rum, which took many years of research before they eventually started official distillation of it. The focus on making a natural rum, with no sugar, colourings or additives, was key to what the team wanted to achieve at the distillery. To do so, they source something called Panela (also known as Raspadura) which is a solidified form of sugar cane juice that hasn’t been commercially refined from partners in South America. The entire process happens on-site at the distillery and the company now releases a small amount of its unaged white rum, with the majority being laid down in oak casks for maturation. 

Why we love Wire Works Whisky

The whisky, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength. Alongside a focus on creating a unique new make spirit using locally spent brewers’ yeast and lightly peated barley, the distillery makes several interesting cash-finished Wire Works Whisky releases such as a Madeira Finish and a Moscatel Finish. This year it launched its oldest whisky to date, which included some barrels initially laid down in 2016. The Bourbon Barrel release is a lightly peated whisky matured in bourbon barrels (sourced from Heaven Hill Distillery), non-chill filtered and bottled at 53.4%. 

These sit alongside other whiskies such as its other permanent but limited edition expression called Caduro Whisky, which is matured in bourbon and STR casks. All bottlings are limited in number and housed in elegant glass with swirling patterns alluding to its Wire Works history. The Wire Works Whisky has also won a number of awards including Gold medals from the Spirits Business World Whisky Masters, and Gold awards from the World Whiskies Awards for its Over Smoke and Virgin Oak expressions. 

From a small idea suggested on a whim following an inspiring meeting, to a full-fledged whisky distillery in the heartland of one of England’s most beautiful geographical areas, the White Peak Distillery is firmly putting its mark on the English whisky scene. We here at Master of Malt can’t wait to see where next for this player in the new wave of English distillers.

The post Wire Works Whisky unplugged: the story of English whisky’s brightest spark appeared first on master of malt BLOG.