Distillery shows BBC crew around for Countryfile Harvest special
A Roudham whisky distillery has shown audiences of a popular BBC TV show how they produce their tipple by appearing on its Harvest special.
The English Whisky Company, in Harling Road, opened its doors to Countryfile with the owner and chief executive Andrew Nelstrop showing the crew around.
In December 2006, the site made its first 29 barrels of English whisky and by August 2007, it had opened a visitor centre, a shop and started tours of the site.
On being in front of the cameras, Mr Nelstrop said: “The distillery has quite a few visits by journalists and camera crew over the years but these are rarely for TV and as a result there was definitely a degree of excitement in the air as the day of filming got closer.
“On the day, we had a cameraman, a producer and an assistant but no presenter - this made it a little less nerve-wracking as spending the morning with the film crew was great fun.
“Filming took about four hours and resulted in the five minutes of TV time. Overall a very enjoyable day of filming and the resulting rise in customer awareness of us and what we do will hopefully make it even more worthwhile.
During the segment, Mr Nelstrop explained how his family decided to start making alcohol.
He said: “In 2005, this site was just a field and my father had always wanted to make whisky, we all agreed as a family, but I don’t think any of us had thought it would be on this scale.”
Since the original distillations in 2006, thousands of casks have been filled, many of which are still maturing in the company’s warehouses.
The whisky is made by malting English barley, which changes the inside of the grain so the distillery can extract sugar from it.
This is done by milling the grain into a rough flour, which includes the husk and the main part of the seed.
That mix is then added to hot water which changes the starch in the seed into sugar and then fermented with yeast to make the liquid alcoholic.
The site’s handmade copper stills then boil it up - this distilling process takes the product down to a very high strength alcohol.
Finally, the white coloured alcohol is condensed, collected up and put into Oak casks to left to naturally mature for a minimum of three years - this also gives the liquid its golden colour.
Mr Nelstrop explained some of the rising costs affecting the distillery and the difference his whisky has to that over the border.
He said: “The rising cost of fertiliser is just staggering, interestingly that has huge impact on the farm, slightly less on the distillery - fuel price is a far greater concern than barley price at the moment.
“One of the things that really stands us aside from our Northern cousins is the climate down here.
“The sheer warmth and dryness means our whisky is maturing differently from how it would in the Highlands of Scotland.
“There is plenty of people out there willing to buy and drink English Whisky - I think things will be all right.”
The Harvest special of Countryfile can be seen on BBC iPlayer.
