Filey Bay tasting event

 Filey Bay Tasting event 

As part of NEWAS, I was again lucky enough to attend a whisky tasting night, hosted by the 'Spirit of Yorkshire' distillery. This was a face to face tasting event for the group, hosted at the Anarchy Brewery Co in Newcastle. 

I clocked off work on the Friday night at 4.30 and quickly got ready, in the knowledge that I had a long travel to get to the venue using the dreaded public bus services during peak traffic hours. 2 Bus journeys and the best part of 2 hours later, I arrived at my last bus stop at 19.25 with the vent starting in 5 minutes. I knew all that recent cardio training had to be of some benefit at some point, so I took to a jog through through Business Park to get to the venue on time, in the hope they hadn't started before me and I might have missed any introductions or information. 

Thankfully I must have jogged at a quicker pace than expected as I arrived for 19.30, in time to take this quick picture of the venue and find a seat. 

Greeted by some of the NEWAS members, I grabbed a quick beer from the great selection at the bar and found a seat where my 6 samples had been poured and awaited my exploration. 

The session was hosted by Filey Bay, UK Brand Ambassador Amy Teasdale. Amy started with a brief history of the distillery. They started with a Brewery, using their malted barley and local water to produce award winning beer. They use 100% homegrown yorkshire barley from their own farm, using sustainable farming techniques (sustainability being a key ethos of this distillery). They never wanted to produce Gin, so upon entering the world of whisky production, they enlisted the help of whisky expert (aka 'the Einstein of whisky') Dr Jim Swan (previously of Kavalan, Kilchoman, Penderyn, Milk & Honey, Cotswolds & more..)

They bought 2 pot stills and a four-plate copper rectifying column to add a unique distillery character. 

Amy then guided us through the process of how they recommend a whisky tasting should be facilitated, guiding us through the aromas of each of the samples, to finely tune our palate before touching a single drop on the palate. Amy talked us through the line-up of their core range whisky, along with a single cask limited edition which is no longer available to purchase, but we are lucky enough to try tonight. 

The first 5 samples are all bottled at 46%, non chill filtered and of natural colour. The distillery is young in its whisky production, with Amy estimating that all whiskies are aged at roughly 5 1/2 years old. 

Dram 1 

Flagship 

RRP: £60

Nose: Very light and delicate. Floral and lemons. Quite perfumy. 

Taste: Digestive biscuit, Pepper with added spice. Caramel. The strongest tasting note I'm getting is grapefruit. Now, I don't like grapefruit but this actually tastes nice and pleasant. Like a toned down grapefruit with added spices. The finish feels long and dry. 

Score: 6/10

Dram 2 

Moscatel Finish (batch 4)

RRP: £65

Nose: Nail polish and oak. Green grapes. 

Taste: Oak, spiced again, similar to the Flagship. Some ginger and feels sweeter than the Flagship. Grapefuit again. 

Score: 6/10

Dram 3

STR cask

RRP: £65

Nose: red grapes. I was smelling red wine notes, just before Amy informed us that the casks used had previously held Rioja. Very nice on the nose. Leather and dark chocolate. 

Taste: Redcurrants and red grapes. The Oak influence is strong, but balanced by the added sweetness. I get pink lady apples but with a touch of pepper. I really enjoyed this one. For me, each dram has improved upon the last so far. 

Score: 7/10

Dram 4 

IPA Finish 

RRP: £65

Nose: Biscuit and green apples. Perfumy and floral. 

Taste: Personally I get a strong IPA influence on the palate with this one. Other members at the tasting thought otherwise but this was my feeling. Grapefruit present again, which when discussed with Amy, she recognised that Grapefruit is a common tasting note recalled throughout the distillery's character of their whisky. Another NEWAS member added the tasting note of 'custard cream' biscuit, which was a great shout and I thoroughly agreed. 

Score: 6/10

Dram 5

Peated Finish 

RRP: 65

Nose: Definite smoke and peat influence. Green apples are present again as the smoke doesn't overpower the floral and fruity aroma within the distillery character. 

Taste: Thicker on the palate, honey with a subtle smoke influence. Grapefruit character is present again, in a good way. I love a smoked whisky and this is good, Id just love to taste it at a higher abv. 

Score: 6/10

Dram 6

Single Cask #663

RRP: Only available as part of a trio and available via ballot, they sold for approximately £350 for the set of 3. Each single cask offered indivduality, with Amy bringing the 663 cask for us today due to it being her personal favourite. 

Fisrt filled with rioja wine, they were shaved, toasted and re-charred before being filled with PX sherry prior to the new make spirit. Bottled at 62.1%, cask 663 is known as 'the sweet one', 

Nose: Leather and dark chocolate, coffee beans and caramel. 

Taste: It fizzles on the tongue with a powerful introduction tot he palate, before offering a real fruity blast of dark fruits, coffee beans and syrup. A touch of spice to finish. Absolutely wonderful stuff. 

Score: 8/10

Summary 

An incredible line-up and a great introduction to what Filey Bay are offering, with the future of their production looking very promising. The single cask stole the show, but then most of the NEWAS members are used to drinking whisky at abv's of 50%+ , so it can be natural that 46%v releases feel a little thin on the palate at time. That being said, I was a big fan of each dram presented tonight. There is clear distinctive notes that carry throughout their whisky bottlings and I liked that the cask influences were exactly that, an influence and not a dominating factor. The single cask aside, my personal favourite was the STR cask finish. This suited my palate really well, whereas the rest of my table preferred the IPA finish. I can understand why, the IPA influence was certainly there (I thought) and there did seem a lot going on in terms of its taste profile, however I don't like IPA beers, i find them too perfumy and floral and this came across strongly for me with that particular dram. 

At 9pm the tasting event had finished, but fortunately the fun didn't end there. A raffle was held in which samples of rare and fine whisky were on offer to be won. The raffle got off to a great start as Amy, the guest host was asked to draw the first ticket, only to draw her own ticket and win the 1st prize (shouts of 'FIX' came from the crowd! haha). The generosity of the whisky community was on display once again, with a couple of members bringing bottles from their own collection in, for others to sample at the end of the night. Amongst this were a 12yo Tomatin, calvados finish by Cadenheads (very nice!) and an Auchentoshan distillery distillery cask (also, very very nice!). 

All in all, a terrific night, with huge thanks to Karl from NEWAS, Amy from Spirit of Yorkshire and also the Anarchy Brewery Co for a hosting a great tasting event. Amy's passion for the Filey Bay brand is clear and we discussed the 'Yorkshire Day' release which i had recently tasted at the Newcastle Whisky Festival. Amy states a new Yorkshire Day is release each year in August, launching on a festival weekend in which people often queue from 8am to get the latest release. I can see why, as the quality of their cask strength whisky is impressive for such a young whisky making distillery. We chatted about the distillery tours on offer, which sound great too, so hopefully a road trip for one of these tours may be on the agenda to see the distillery in person in the near time future. Filey Bay - highly recommended from me!!