The London Distillery Company – Third Time’s a Charm?

The London Distillery Company (TLDC) is back, and it has unfinished business.

One of English whisky’s earliest modern pioneers, TLDC helped lay the foundations for the category before quietly fading into ghost distillery status. 

Now it’s returning under the stewardship of managing director and whisky maker Matt McKay, formerly of Bimber and Dunphail, and the brains behind whisky site The Dramble. 

A short history of TLDC

The first chapter began back in 1807, when engineer and entrepreneur Ralph Dodd set out to challenge the status quo. His plan? Produce unadulterated spirit without industrial shortcuts. But after raising funds, hiring staff, and acquiring the Old Water Mill at Nine Elms for £12,000, Dodd hit resistance.

A Tory MP and distillery owner, Philip Metcalfe, led a campaign against Dodd’s vision. The Crown invoked the 1720 Bubble Act, halting operations before the first drop had even flowed. A spirit of innovation stamped out by protectionism.

Fast-forward to 2011, and TLDC re-emerged, this time creating the first new whisky distillery in London since 1903. Products like Dodd’s Gin, Kew Organic Spirits, and a limited rye whisky found their way into over 20 countries.

Ambitious plans followed, including a new distillery at Battersea Power Station with a hidden members’ club. But things unravelled quickly. Founder Darren Rook exited in 2017 amid an HMRC investigation. The Battersea project was shelved, and by 2019, after a failed £500k crowdfunding attempt, TLDC collapsed into administration. The British Honey Company bought the remaining stock. 

Rye, rye, rye, Delilah?

One of the nails in the cask? The price tag. TLDC’s first whisky sold for £231 – for a three-year-old rye.

“The price was ridiculous. Even nowadays, it’d turn heads. But back in 2014? No chance,” says McKay. By happenstance, he was having a drink in the bar at the London restaurant Rules at the time of its launch. He overheard TLDC staff discussing the release and challenged them on their thinking. They told McKay, “If Macallan can charge that, why can’t we?” He told them plainly, ‘You’re not Macallan. ’

The old TLDC was a cautionary tale of big dreams, bad timing, and baffling price points. But in the turmoil, casks of whisky survived. Interesting whisky, made with a perspective ahead of its time. 

The quality of this spirit and the prospect of what TLDC could be if done right were enough to persuade Gleann Mór Spirits to acquire the company and its remaining stock in January 2025. 

Chapter Three: Revival

McKay set out to lead what he’s calling a “Revival,” and outlined to me why the old TLDC was ahead of the curve. 

“They were doing things with heritage and land race grains, heritage yeasts, and old style production methods that nowadays people are really used to. But in 2011, this was brand new. People weren’t ready for what they were doing. TLDC has never really had a fair roll of the dice”.

McKay’s mission is to release those legacy casks, reshape them where needed, and eventually build a new distillery.

“At the minute, the story is just not done. It’s a guy in the 19th century who had an idea, and it didn’t come off. That’s a story of failure. Then, TLDC came back with a splash in 2011. That became a story of failure. Third time’s a charm”.

Ingredient-forward whisky

What McKay has inherited is roughly 70 casks of whisky distilled between 2011 and 2020. We’re talking English single malt whisky between six and nearly eleven years old, made from heritage barley from Warminster Maltings, old-school London beer yeast from Surrey, and good old Thames water. There’s no rye left. 

McKay says the character of these whiskies speaks to the production methods: namely, the use of heritage grain and heritage yeast. “It’s very ingredient forward. The perspective was to use the grains that originally drove the whisky industry from about the 1920s to the 1960s. That’s two particular: Plumage Archer and Maris Otter. They fell out of favour for things like Diablo, then later Concerto, moving on to Laureate”.

He adds that these grains are more characterful and unique, particularly against a sea of whiskies made with largely the same strains. “If you line up whisky from 10 distilleries that use Laureate barley, they’ll all be different, because every distillery does things differently, but there’ll be a commonality. Then compare them to a whisky made with Plumage Archer. It tastes completely different: deeper, richer, maltier, with a more expressive core”. 

A whisky ahead of its time

It doesn’t lean into what McKay describes as the modern, fruity, and immensely clean style that has become the go-to for new whisky distilleries. The kind that tastes amazing at three, four years old, because it’s been engineered for that purpose. TLDC didn’t do things like that.

The same is true for its yeast policy. TLDC used two less-common yeasts: Whitbread B (a classic brewer’s strain) and Young’s 1920s Distillers yeast (more of a heritage strain with specific flavour character). Most big distillers these days tend to use a variation of MX yeast, which McKay describes as “beautiful” and is prized for being very predictable and efficient. Your MX yeast will follow an ideal fermentation profile: steady growth, sugar consumption, and alcohol production, all in a neat, expected arc. That’s great for consistency and yield, which is why big distillers love it.

“Beer strains don’t necessarily do that, but they add flavour. They add complexity, and they speak of the past,” McKay explains. 

What’s in the casks?

The original TLDC whisky was made on a 650-litre Holstein still with a side column rectifier – affectionately named Matilda, after Rook’s Scottish grandmother. This still obviously had an influence, but without seeing it run, it’s impossible for McKay to really know how that manifested itself. There is no plan to replicate it. Brora? Port Ellen? Sure, recreate the stills. But for TLDC, the idea is to carry on the ethos rather than mimic the hardware.

As for maturation, there’s a wide selection of casks that includes English oak, American oak, some tubs (literally 30 litres in size), bourbon barrels, and sherry casks. None of it has previously seen the light of day. 

“Being honest, it’s varied. Some of it is fantastic, some of it isn’t,” says McKay. “A period of loss and closure hasn’t helped. Whisky is a slow thing, but it always needs someone nurturing it. I don’t think there was anyone there [at British Honey] who knew what to do with it or did anything with it to a level that I would consider sufficient. The spirit is great, but some of it’s been left in knackered wood. We’ve got a team up there with some new casks from Spain, and we’re re-racking them into a variety of different styles. Fortunately, most of the casks are in great shape”. 

Like a kid in a sweet shop

Currently home isn’t London but an industrial estate in Belford in the middle of the Northumberland countryside. With the parent company in Edinburgh, this allows easy access to monitor the stock while ensuring it’s maturing in England. Nice and compliant with the coming GI.

McKay has tried every single cask. “I’ve had a lot of sheets of information, some of it modern, some of it historic. The only thing you can go on is, well, this is what I can see, and this is what I can smell, and this is what I can taste. It was a real kid in the sweet shop moment. We opened up every single one, and found some weird shit”. 

When we met for this interview, McKay was prepping for the Summerton Whisky Festival armed with The Revival Release as well as a cask strength (71.1% ABV) English apple brandy matured in Limousin French oak ex-cider casks. I’m assured it’s like apple pie. It sounds incredible. But let’s talk more about that first release. 

The revival release

Yes, we will have a new TLDC whisky very soon with the launch of The Revival Release. It’s a blend of refill and first-fill sherry casks, bottled just a touch below cask strength.

“I haven’t played with this one much. The first release should speak to what TLDC was before I get my feet under the table and then start telling people what I think it is for the future,” McKay explains. “The sherry at London is pretty strong, but the barrels were pretty gentle, so on one side you’ve got this sweetness of the sherry, but then the barrels really speak to the ingredients: the grain, the yeast”.

Next off the line is Golden Union. It’s an English blended malt priced under £50, built from TLDC casks and stock it had from other older English distilleries. 

I find this release particularly exciting. We discuss how an English blend is a statement of intent. The joy that, as a category, English whisky is now developed enough to have the requisite variety and volume to create whiskies of different dimensions. “There are also now over 50 producing English whisky distilleries. More than enough crayons in your colouring box to draw some new pictures,” McKay says. “I would argue if you get to a point where you have an English Blended category, that’s your sign of maturity”.

The maturity of English whisky 

It’s striking too talking about an English whisky distillery with a phoenix narrative – the kind usually reserved for Scotch legends. The fact that the category is even old enough to have a ghost distillery feels almost surreal. Two decades ago, there was no English whisky scene, just a couple of barely realised dreams. Now, we’re talking about revivals, stylistic distinctions, geographical indications, and historical influence. 

Not that McKay would compare TLDC to anything made by its peers. “It’s older. It tastes of the grain. It tastes of the earth. It’s deep. It’s not fruit-forward. It’s not polished within an inch of its life. This is whisky as it used to be made. But it’s also a style that effectively never existed and never took off”. He notes that it is this unique quality and character of spirit that tempted him into the TLDC fold.

While McKay suspects TLDC won’t be the last English ghost distillery (I’d also back that bet), he’s absolutely full of optimism. His dream is that English whisky will become a category on a website that isn’t lumped into ‘Other’ or ‘Rest of the World’, but stands alongside Scotch, American, Irish, and Japanese whisky. “If we can get to that point, I think my colleagues and I have done a bloody good job”.

GI Matt

McKay was actually on the board of the English Whisky Guild (EWG) while at Bimber and helped write the GI proposal. So it’s no surprise that TLDC will be compliant with it going forward. 

That doesn’t mean everything it did 11 years before the publication of the GI is compliant, of course. A lot of distilleries will be in that boat too, having flexed their creative muscles before parameters were set. McKay thinks it would be reasonable for the EWG to give distilleries a period of grace before enforcing the GI. 

He’s also hoping that TLDC will soon be one of the distilleries. There are big plans afoot.

Plans for the future London Distillery

If all goes well, there will be a new distillery for TLDC soon. “Hopefully, we’ll be in the beautiful position whereby we have a new distillery in the year/18 months,” McKay reveals. “And people will visit and say, ‘Oh, well, you’ve obviously got no whisky as a young distillery, right?’ and we’ll say, ‘Actually, we do’”. Alright for some…

TLDC is in the position that a lot of Irish whiskeys have found themselves in over recent years. They’ve bought spirit from Bushmills or Great Northern Distillery to cover costs and get the brand going while their own spirit matures. But then they have a key question: do we try and match the character of the whisky we’ve released, or create something different? After all, if everyone made Bushmills, the market would be a little dull. And also, nobody would do it as well as Bushmills.

For TLDC, it has a similar question to answer. Does it try and create whisky to match what was made in the last decade or so, or does it try and forge a new path?

A question of logistics and perspective

“I would say, come and talk to me again in 12 to 18 months”. McKay isn’t being coy, it’s just a lot has changed. He also has his own preferences gained through his years of experience, such as using direct fire or worm tubs. These weren’t features of the previous distillery, but McKay believes they add integrity, quality and character to whisky.

There’s also the logistical challenge of mirroring the old TLDC approach, given the fondness for heritage grain. Plumage Archer barley costs over £1,000 a tonne. 

“If we can get the grain and we can get the yeast, I will absolutely play around with it,” McKay says. “But whatever we do, we will honour the legacy of TLDC. It will always be craft. It will always be old-style distilling. TLDC was ahead of its time, so the new TLDC can’t just do what was in its past. I need to be ahead of the time for the future, so that means some twists and some spins. A revival doesn’t mean copying everything. It means honouring the past”.

“Third time’s a charm”

The big question remains. Why will TLDC’s fate be any different this time? 

“We’re gonna bottle some great whisky. We’re going to honour the past. And we’re going to use the reputation and excitement that generates to build a new distillery and continue that legacy,” says McKay. He outlines that this time, the plan is grounded – no eye-watering price tags, no overreach, and definitely no tax drama. Yes, it’s happening in a tough market. It would have been easier a few years ago, perhaps. But then, if you can make it now, you’ll make it anytime. 

McKay hopes people like what they’re doing. He’s absolutely loving it. “I put my soul into everything I do.” That personal commitment runs deep, right down to the branding. McKay collaborated with longtime friend and designer John Watkinson to evolve the aesthetic of TLDC without erasing its past. 

They looked at the original logo – built on a triangle – and didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So the shape was kept and a new element was added: a liquid drop, falling into the Thames Basin. The storytelling won’t just be about TLDC – it’ll be about London.

The London Distillery Company

Because if there’s one word that anchors the revival, it’s London. It’s where McKay has lived his whole life (apart from his uni days). It’s where the original spirit was made. It’s where this brand belongs.

McKay tells me about London’s history as part of the whisky chain. “London was where transport casks from Jerez docked before they were sent north. People don’t realise the city was a cask hub. I’ve got loads of old photos – thousands of sherry butts stacked on the docks,” he says. 

So here’s the real story of The London Distillery Company. Not one of failure. Not just another comeback. This is a London story – a city of a million reinventions. A whisky that reflects its restless, resilient spirit. And a new team led by a Londoner desperate to do right by it and take it into a bright new future. 

Let’s hope third time really is the charm.

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