World Whisky Day: We meet the West Midlands' whisky innovators as the world celebrates a wee dram

It's also one of the biggest exports to come out of the country, with £2.9 billion of exports from Scotch whisky alone coming out of Scotland and travelling all over the world to be enjoyed in countries like the USA, India and Japan.

World Whisky Day, which happens on the third Saturday of May every year, is a celebration of the drink, with people all over the world invited to raise a glass of their favourite and toast the art of the drink.

Ask anyone where whisky is known for being made and the most common answers would be Scotland for Scotch, Ireland, the USA for rye and bourbon and even Japan for its unique blend of whiskies.

One country where whisky production isn't as well known, but is growing exponentially, is England.

Whisky production in the country had seen a real boom in recent years, with 45 distilleries now up and running from the top of Northumberland all the way down to the bottom of Cornwall and the English Whisky Guild set up for English whisky to be recognised globally as a respected choice for whisky drinkers.

Within the West Midlands, there are four active distilleries making and selling whisky - in the Black Country, Staffordshire and Shropshire, all at different stages of production.

In Shropshire, the Henstone Distillery in Trewern has been producing and selling whisky since 2021, while the Ludlow Distillery has been producing its single malt English Whisky since 2018.

Henstone is a place with pedigree, having won a gold medal at the International World Whisky Awards for its three-year ex-bourbon casked matured whisky.

We spoke to head of sales Henry Teller about what made the whisky so successful.

"We're not a massive conglomerate, so we release all our whiskies as single cask releases, which means that every batch is slightly different and we predominantly use ex-bourbon casks.

"Some examples include Buffalo Trace, Jack Daniels and Jim Bean and that means that every distillation has its own distinct flavour and we mature our single malts in those casks.

"We also detail our batches on each bottle, so if you go to our website, you'll be able to go on and see which cask it was in and where your bottle came from, so it's simple as that."

The Ludlow Distillery's single malt is a true small batch production, with only 400 bottles available every six months, all made from one of the smallest commercial whisky distilleries in the UK, using a rare German column still.

Owner and founder Shaun Ward said his journey in spirits began in 2014 when he founded Ludlow Gin, having been head of music at St Martin's in Ludlow for 13 years and joking that he gave up God and took up gin instead.

He said the previous owner of Ludlow Whisky Mike Collins had offered him the opportunity to take over in 2020 and spoke about what made Ludlow Whisky so unique.

He said: "We're the only distillery that uses Scottish peated malt in all our distillations, so we're quite unique in England in the sense that we're a lightly peated whisky and we use a Germany wood fire to copper still.

"It's one of the smallest stills in the UK and so we get a very high quality spirit which has tastes of butterscotch and caramel and is slightly hoppy, sweet and super smooth.

"I don't think I've come across a single person who hasn't thought this was amazing and that's great as Scotland, obviously, dominates the market, but English whisky has been around for a couple of hundred years, the industry died and then grew again, so it's an exciting time."

While there are whiskies for sale over in Shropshire, the work is still underway to mature and craft the whiskies set to be sold in Wolseley Bridge in Staffordshire and Rowley Regis in the Black Country.

Mercia Spirits Lab at Bishton Hall in Wolseley Bridge, which is just north of Rugeley, has been established as a setting for its excellent gin school and tasting experiences, and has set the stage for the sale of its rye and single malt whiskies in spring 2027.

Owner Jeremy Roney said he had decided to make a whisky, a drink he said he loved and had many bottles of, after talking to a friend he met at a music festival and deciding to make a whisky.

He said: "We met in a mosh pit, born in the mosh pit and set in the fire, and we just decided one night to make a whisky. Then, one day, I got an excited phone call about how my friend had found barley growing out of the front of his pub and had asked if he could have it.

"We ended up making a lot of whisky that day from what was there and that's how Mercia Whisky was born, then we moved here in 2021 as this was the old science classroom for the school at Bishton Hall and it just fitted perfectly.

"I carried on making the rye as I'd always wanted to make a rye that was sweet and would take on the likes of Jack Daniels - and that's aiming big, but we should aim big."

The whisky itself is a smooth mix, made with Staffordshire Barley and carrying a biscuity taste and a sweet aftertaste, as well as a stronger alcohol percentage of between 47 and 53 per cent.

Currently being produced outside of Staffordshire, Mr Roney said the plan was to move the production onto the site, with £225,000 of the £1 million fund already reached to set up the distillery at the Hall.

He also said that English whisky was like a best-kept secret and he was excited to see it building and being celebrated on World Whisky Day.

He said: "It is a bit of a best-kept secret and this whisky has opened the door to so many people, particularly investors, as people don't know we're here until they find out with the gin school and tastings and they get to meet me as the master distiller.

"The day itself is massive for us and we'll be putting out a post on social media to let people know about us and about the whisky we have coming, as well as our own distillery coming here."

Across the region in Rowley Regis, the West Midlands Distillery has been putting the final touches on its first cask of whisky, which was started in June 2021 and the cask laid down in August that year, and will be on sale to the public in August this year.

Jordan Lunn and his team have been working to get the whisky ready and Jordan, who is well known as owner and founder of Dr Eamers Gin, spoke about his journey and how the work would be worth it for the final product.

He said: "I've turned what was a hobby into a business after realising I could do a lot with vodka and gin and rum, so we founded Dr Eamers in 2017, moved into our first premises in 2017 and opened the Waterfront Bar in 2019, as well as our distilling site in Rowley Regis.

"This year, we've opened the doors to our dedicated whisky distillery and visitor centre on the Waterfront, which is coinciding with us unveiling our single malt, the first to come out of the West Midlands, in August.

"Whisky itself is costly and laborious, particularly for us as we use speciality brewers yeasts which yield less and so our alcohol yield is lower than typical, but we're in pursuit of flavour and we use Staffordshire oak casks and it's a labour of love.

"We do things that other distillers might not do and English whisky is really challenging the status quo and showing that things can be done a bit differently and be produced for flavour over the pursuit of the yield."

To find out more about World Whisky Day, go to worldwhiskyday.com.

To find out about Henstone Distillery, go to henstonedistillery.com.

To find out about Ludlow Distillery, go to ludlowdistillery.co.uk.

To find out about Mercia Spirits Lab, go to merciadistillery.co.uk/mercia-spirits-lab.

To find out about West Midlands Distillery, go to westmidlandsdistillery.co.uk.