Whittaker’s is one of those distilleries on this tour that I had no knowledge of going into, I was simply going off of a recommendation from an associate of mine, however I’m incredibly glad I did.
Whittaker’s is about as rural as you can get when it comes to an English distillery, where to get to it you have to go to a remote village of Nidderdale, go off the main road of said village into a small lane through countryside clearings, and finally end up in the distillery surrounded by fields of livestock. In fact, on my way into the distillery I got caught up in a cow traffic jam!
The distillery itself is rural through and through as well, with typical Yorkshire countryside hospitality, welcoming us in with complimentary tea and coffee, as well as a gin and tonic. We were served by one of the owners, Toby, who was a really down to earth guy and was willing to entertain us while we waited for our tour. He also got us a homemade pepperoni pizza, which was just as delicious as it was charming.
The main bar area is full of spirits from all over the world, and not just whisky! All were organised into three shelves and were simply priced by which shelf they were on, a system I really appreciate as it makes life easier for both the bartender and the customer!
The rest of the room is both a shop and dining area, full of shelves of their spirits, as well as other small set pieces like a display table, a small globe full of bottles and a piano (which I did have a little play on).
Our tour was run by Derek, one of the distillers at Whittaker’s. He was also very down to earth and was very genuine about the processes they use to make their spirit. He started off with their gin process, showing us the three anchor botanicals they use (juniper, coriander and angelica root), before moving onto the main still they use, which is a pot still!
He goes through the process they use to extract the oils from the botanicals, and how they treat the heads and tails, all very good stuff to mention! He also mentioned how they are sometimes contracted out to make gin for other companies, the main bottle he had to demonstrate being a cassis gin they made for Fortnum & Mason!
After this he ran us through the process of making their whisky, which was really cool as it was all hand made! He even showed us the inside of the mash tun, but from the bottom, which I’ve never had a chance to see before! He also went on to show us the grist they use for their mash, as well as the yeast they use in their fermentation, explaining the process they took to decide on these ingredients as they were developing their whisky.
It’s worth mentioning through this that Derek was keeping the guests engaged and upbeat by constantly interacting with us, asking us questions and joking about their being a quiz at the end to see how much people have been paying attention, while listing off the question number each fact he’s giving belongs to (for the record, there was no test, which made me sad).
We now move onto the cask warehouse, where the intricacies of different casks and how they affect the spirit inside are explained. Derek seemed to make it his mission to convert some of the other guests who were with us into whisky enjoyers, and I’ll explain how that went later! The cask explanation was genuinely fascinating as he was very open about not only which casks were what, but where they came from and exactly what kind of contents it had before.
For example, he wouldn’t just say “These lot are sherry casks”, he would point to specific casks and say “This one was a manzanilla sherry cask, this one was a moscatel sherry cask, and (oh yeah I love this one), this is a cream sherry cask”. It has a sense of infectious passion which really does rub off on guests. This is also where he mentions that all of the distillers who work here are volunteers, they do this for the love of the game! As someone who shares this passion, I can’t express how much this sentiment meant to me. It’s just heart-warming to see distillers who are so passionate about their craft they would do it for free.
Finally, we are taken back to the main hall, where we are handed off to the other co-owner Jane, and sit down in front of our samples and all have some complimentary locally made pork pies and nacho chips. Now you may notice if you look at the image that we were given 9 samples! That’s insanely generous, and you can have more to try the rest of the range if you want to!
Because of how many samples there were I won’t be able to mention how they all taste, but I will rattle off which samples we had. Most of the samples were gin with, those being: Original, Pink particular, Chamomile Lawn, Summer Solstice, Navy Strength, Winter Solstice, Rampant Raspberry and Rosy Old Tom. All but the last two were London dry gins, but all of them were delicate, light and absolutely delicious. The final spirit sample was their 2024 First Edition, an ex-bourbon that was also very delicate and light, but was of course a lot more complex. It was also fantastic.
I will say I now have two bottles of my favourite gins from this sample board and will do a full review down the line! I’ll do the whisky eventually too, especially since I got to taste their 2025 ex-pedro ximenez whisky as a bonus, which might be the one I buy!
Overall this tour is nothing short of warm, homey and charming. I really love this distillery and all it stands for, I can’t help but wish it the best and hope it becomes one of the best known brands in both English whisky and gin! Derek made the joke that after this tour and tasting this would become our favourite distillery, and he wasn’t far off the mark. Whittaker’s is fantastic, and I believe has become my partner’s favourite gin brand in the process!
I want to thank a few people on this one. Thank you Toby for the fantastic hospitality, thank you Jane for the chill and thorough tasting session, and thank you both for such a great distillery. Thank you Derek for what was unironically one of the best tours I’ve ever been on, despite being such a small distillery. Thank you Dean, who although not mentioned I did get to quickly chat to at the end, for also helping to make this distillery the best it can be. Finally, while this is unusual thanks to give, thank you to the couple who were on the tour with us. They were the ones who Derek was trying to convince to like whisky and one of them got converted! But above that they were also just lovely to chat to after the tour and I think elevated the tour even more just by being there, so thank you!
Would I recommend visiting Whittaker’s? What do you think, you fool?! Of course I do, and I for sure will be visiting again in future. This has gone from a distillery I didn’t even have on my radar last week to easily one of my favourite’s I’ve ever visited, both thanks to their ethos and the taste of their spirits. I’ll be coming back very soon, and I hope to see you there!
This post’s recommended song is: “No. 1 Party Anthem” – Arctic Monkeys
