About

Our challenge was to discover perfect conditions for distilling, aging and blending the finest English whisky.  After a 4 year quest to find the perfect location, here among the rugged granite tors and the shrouded peaks of Dartmoor, Britain’s highest distillery found a home where a unique coolness prevails throughout the year.

Exceptional whisky distilleries are found at high altitude where a purity of distillation is naturally supported, since higher altitudes promote natural partial low-pressure distillation.

To understand this, it’s important to note that at higher elevations, where the air is thinner and atmospheric pressure is lower, the temperature at which the spirit boils in the copper still is also lower.  This is good as temperature control is one of the most important factors in distilling a good spirit.

The process of distillation separates the spirit from congeners, which are chemicals, sometimes toxic, produced during the fermentation process. High temperatures result in both the spirits and congeners distilling off together, making them hard to separate. Low temperatures allow for spirits and congeners to distill off at different points.

The lower temperatures involved in distillation at elevation, like here high on Dartmoor, means that the spirit is more easily separated from the congeners. At sea level, the alternative is to distill the spirit many times over to remove the congeners. As a result, many of the great aromas are lost.

High altitude allows for easier separation of the good stuff from the bad, so the whisky will retain all the wonderful natural aromas of the original spirit. This natural effect is so desirable in whisky distillation that some distilleries at sea level worldwide use depressurised stills to reproduce the low-pressure distillation that is naturally found at high altitudes. In short, the highest placed distilleries are making good use of their location to produce the best tasting spirits; and the laws of physics are on their side.

Home to distilleries that are at some of the highest altitudes in the world, the Japanese, clearly understand what it takes to distill a fine spirit and this could go some way to explaining how they have become leaders in the world whisky industry.

The Dartmoor heights and windswept terrain produce a spirit with a pureness and complexity perfect for our purpose. From the cool airs develop a warmth and depth of character rich in its origin.

Our spirit distilled at lower temperature, in beautiful copper stills high on the Dartmoor plateau; produces a very significant energy reduction. This makes our whisky among the most sustainable available.  

Our vision is to revive the important English Whisky industry of the 1700s and 1800s, when Bristol’s Cheese Lane Distillery created whisky for England, Scotland, Ireland and the whole world!  

DARTMOOR brings commercial scale English whisky back to the forefront of public consciousness. Using the very essence of Dartmoor we have brought together perfect natural conditions with exceptionally skilled distillers to create the finest world class single malts.

Only pure waters from the source of the River Dart combined with exceptional quality English distilling barley; activated by a spot of secret and wild yeasts are used to produce our fine highmoorland spirit.