The English Whisky Co. with Andrew Nelstrop

Join LA Scotch Club as we meet Andrew Nelstrop, THE MAN at English Whisky Co.  Believe it or not, this distillery is NOT a stranger to the club as we have been slipping their whisky into events like Peatin’ and the Advent Calendar for well over a decade.  We’ve quietly enjoyed their whisky, but haven’t focused on them because we didn’t know much about them.  THAT ENDS ON OCT 1st.  Andrew will guide us through five whiskies at the lovely outdoor patio at GlenArden Club in Glendale.  We are officially “open” at 6pm for checking in and ordering food.  The whisky tasting will likely begin at 7pm.

The History

In 2005, Lincolnshire farmer James Nelstrop decided to fulfill a lifelong dream as he approached retirement at age 60: establishing England’s first operational whisky distillery in over a century. Prior to this, the last registered English whisky distillery had ceased production in 1901.

Located at St George’s Distillery in Roudham, Norfolk, the enterprise officially opened in 2006. Built using the family’s agricultural and construction background, the distillery was designed to produce single malt whisky from locally sourced ingredients. The facility utilizes pure water drawn from the underlying Breckland aquifer, along with barley grown on the Nelstrop family farms and malted at Crisps in Fakenham. Under the initial guidance of former Laphroaig master distiller Iain Henderson, production began with bespoke copper stills and slow, traditional fermentation processes focused on quality rather than immediate commercial scale.

Andrew Nelstrop Biography

Andrew Nelstrop is the owner and Managing Director of The English Distillery. Raised in a farming family that spent time in Australia before returning to Norfolk in the 1970s, Andrew worked alongside his father, James, from the project’s inception. He assisted in building the distillery infrastructure and establishing early operations.

Following his father’s passing in 2014, Andrew took over complete leadership of the business. Under his direction alongside his wife, Katy, the distillery expanded from a focus purely on spirit production to international distribution and sales, establishing a dedicated presence in global markets, including the United States. Andrew continues to manage the independent, family-owned business, overseeing both peated and unpeated single malt spirit production.

Andrew Nelstrop will host the LA Scotch Club on October 1st for a guided tasting featuring the distillery’s US core range and two exclusive single-cask bottlings:

The Whisky

The English Original (43% ABV)
The English Smokey (43% ABV)
The English Sherry Cask (46% ABV)
The English Single Cask – Cyder Cask (57.7% ABV)
The English Single Cask – Heavily Smoked, Sherry Cask (56.30% ABV)