White Peak Distillery

White Peak’s Story

In England’s Peak District National Park is White Peak – Derbyshire’s first ever whisky distillery. The distillery is housed in a former wire and cable factory on the banks of the River Derwent. This fact is reflected in the name of their single malt whisky range – Wire Works. White Peak is named after the nearby White Peak mountain.

White Peak is highly innovative with experimentation of differing cut points on the still, long fermentation times and unorthodox cask types for maturation. They also made the early stylistic choice to use lightly peated malt, making Wire Works almost unique amongst English whiskies. White Peak one of the founding members of the English Whisky Guild, a body designed to bring consistency and structure to the English craft distilling scene.

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White Peak’s History

Founders Max and Claire Vaughan first dreamed of owning a distillery in 2015. Neither were from a distilling background – both worked in different roles within the City of London. They decided to bring whisky making to their home county of Derbyshire and sought advice from industry veterans Dr. Jim Swan, the craft distilling guru that helped to set up numerous distilleries around the world before his death in 2017, and Chip Tate, the co-founder of the Balcones distillery in Texas.

In 2017, the husband-and-wife team settled on the former Johnson & Nephew wire and cable factory in Ambergate within the Peak District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Victorian company had operated on the site from 1876 until closing in 1996 after years of financial issues and had laid derelict for 20 years. Production began in April 2018 with their inaugural Wire World single malt released in February 2022. Their whiskies started picking up international awards immediately and continue to do so as their range continues to expand.

• How to pronouce White Peak? wyte-peek
• Country: England
• Region: Derbyshire
• Founded: 2017
• Current owners: Independent – Max & Claire Vaughan
• Production capacity per year: 120,000 litres
• Mash tun: 670kg stainless steel
• Washbacks: 8
• Stills: 2
• Visitor centre: Yes

White Peak Distillery
Derwent Wire Works
Matlock Road, Ambergate
Derbyshire
DE56 2HE
tel – +44(0)1773 856918
www.whitepeakdistillery.co.uk