The Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, an English whisky distillery based in Hunmanby, Yorkshire, has announced the release of a limited edition bottling. Filey Bay Orange Wine Barrique is a seven year old whisky that underwent a unique dual-maturation process before bottling.
The whisky spent three years and three months in ex-bourbon before being re-racked into orange wine casks for a further three years and 10 months. Bottled at 46.2% ABV, the limited edition whisky boasts notes of orange cake, honeycomb, citrus, and stone fruits.
Spirit of Yorkshire Filey Bay Orange Wine Barrique
“Over the last few years, deep within our warehouse, four ex-orange wine barriques have been happily maturing for this deliciously different special release,” explains Joe Clark, Whisky Director at Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery. “But this isn’t the skin-contact orange wine you’d expect to find on the list of your local artisan wine bar. Vino Naranja del Condado de Huelva is exclusively made with Protected Designation of Origin “Condado de Huelva”. This particular orange wine is made in a similar way to other fortified wines. However, the key difference is that the grape spirit used to ‘fortify’ the base wine has been aromatised with orange peel.”
“The natural reduction of strength over many years in the orange wine casks is a big part of what makes this whisky so smooth and delicious,” Clark added. “Unlike the powerful cask-strength whisky, these casks were filled with mature whisky at a reduced strength of 50% abv in March 2021. In the intervening years the abv has slowly slipped away as the angels took their share. In this very rare example, the strength in the bottle of 46.2% is the strength that the whisky reached in the cask all on its own with no final reduction before bottling. It’s a process that requires constant checking of the casks to make sure the whisky is bottled at precisely the right time.”
Spirit of Yorkshire has been experimenting with finishes in recent years, releasing a Moscatel Finish, an IPA Finish, and a Peated Finish.
Price & Availability
Just 1,000 bottles of Filey Bay Orange Wine Barrique have been produced. Each bottle costs £85 and is now available from the distillery and via selected retailers.
What Is Orange Wine?
Orange wine is a type of white wine made using an ancient technique where white grapes are fermented with their skins, much like red wine. This skin-contact fermentation gives the wine its distinctive amber or orange hue and adds tannins, body, and complex flavors that are not typically found in conventional white wines.
Read the full article at Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery Experiments With Orange Wine For Limited Release