The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has raised concerns over England’s attempt to secure a geographical indication (GI) for English whisky. While many have welcomed the proposal as a positive step for England’s burgeoning whisky scene, the SWA has chosen to focus on one specific element: where mashing and fermenting take place.
The SWA argues that allowing English distillers to use third-party breweries for these stages of production — before distilling at their own sites — devalues the term ‘single malt’. Their claim? That single malt whisky is intrinsically linked to place and that allowing this process could harm Scotch whisky’s reputation.
Andrew Nelstrop, MD of
The English Whisky Co, disagrees.
‘Complete nonsense’ says Nelstrop
“The claim is that by allowing English industry distillers to use their own breweries or a third-party brewery (it still must be based in England) to do the mashing and fermenting of the barley before distilling it back at the distillery, it in some way will create a single malt spirit that is inferior to doing the mashing and fermenting on the same site,” he told
db. “Of course, this is complete nonsense — one might argue using a brewery to do the initial stage might increase the quality as they are specialists in this part of the process.”
English whisky: more stringent than Scotch?
Nelstrop is quick to point out that the English Whisky GI, far from being lax, actually enforces stricter regulations than its Scottish counterpart when it comes to sourcing ingredients.
“The SWA has also failed to mention that our GI is far more stringent in the sourcing of barley than theirs,” he explains. “Whilst we have to buy our grain from a UK source and the grain must have been grown in the UK, the Scottish industry can source their barley from anywhere in the world (and do in large quantities); these overseas supplies are not subject to the same agronomy scrutiny as our UK crops are and will invariably be treated with chemicals that are now banned in the UK.”
The real threat to ‘Single Malt’
According to Nelstrop, the real danger to the term ‘single malt’ isn’t whether mashing and fermenting take place on-site, but rather the way some Scotch whisky is being handled in the marketplace.
“I would argue that the largest threat to the term single malt comes not from the location the barley is mashed and fermented but from the wholesale dumping of volume at ridiculously low prices by the Scottish industry, devaluing not only their own stocks but potentially everyone else’s.”
The SWA, however, maintains that protecting the integrity of single malt whisky is paramount. “It would be very damaging for the reputation of single malt whisky from the UK, and by extension single malt Scotch whisky, if English whiskies were allowed to describe spirit as ‘single malt’ despite being produced in a different manner to the established process and long-standing traditions of the Scotch whisky industry,” their spokesperson stated.
For an industry that prides itself on premiumisation, Nelstrop's claim of bulk sales and cut-price bottlings sits uncomfortably alongside the SWA’s concern for whisky’s reputation.
Why now?
Perhaps most curiously, the SWA’s opposition to the English Whisky GI seems selective according to Nelstrop. When Welsh whisky secured its own GI — following a similar production model — the Scotch lobby remained silent. Nelstrop has his own theory about why English whisky is facing resistance.
“It is also surprising that the SWA have decided to raise the subject at all, as they said nothing when the Welsh whisky GI launched following the English criteria rather than the Scots… is it the continual rise of English whisky that they see as a threat that they need to subdue rather than the issue of where mashing and fermenting happens?”
With English whisky producers gaining ground in both domestic and international markets, there’s no doubt that Scotch is paying attention. But whether opposing a GI that seeks to elevate English whisky’s reputation is the best way to defend Scotch’s dominance remains to be seen.
The opposition window for the English Whisky GI application closes on 20 May 2025, giving the SWA a few months to make their case.
