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In this episode of The Country Gent Podcast we interview Chris and Abbie, the founders of Cooper King Distillery.

Their story is really inspiring. Both had good, professional jobs but quickly realised that the daily grind wasn’t for them so they booked one way tickets to Australia.

Whilst travelling, they spent some time in Tazmania where there are a number of small distilleries. They visited them all and by doing this, realised that whisky could be produced on a small scale and the idea of building their own craft distillery back home was born. Before returning to the UK, they attended a distilling course in Tazmania as none of them had any prior experience.

Since returning to Yorkshire in 2015, they have been busy researching, learning and building! With a strict budget of £300,000, they have been doing a lot of the building work themselves with the help of some friends.

We also discuss:

• Why the whisky business is an accountant’s worse nightmare, especially for a new distillery
• What the distillery will look like and how it will run once built
• The flavour profile they’re looking to achieve with the whisky
• The long term plans for the distillery

If you want to get involved and support the project, they have recently launched the Founders Club. This is part of their crowd funding campaign to raise funds to finish the build.

• The Founders Club offers members a bottle of their inaugural single malt whisky which will we be drawn from the distillery’s first filled cask – cask number 1 – and won’t be on general sale.
• Members also get to try the the malt spirit as it ages, and other perks include an ambassador’s toolbox of distillery merchandise, lifetime membership and your name on the Founders’ Plaque in the distillery.
• There are 4 different membership options (there’s one for the gin fans too) and membership starts from £30.

For more information visit the Founders Club page on their website.

The whisky featured in Malt of the Month is the peated edition of Glenturret. This is a wonderful introduction to what peated whisky can be and with it’s easy drinking taste, is a great one for those who are slowly moving up the whisky peat scale. Very reasonably priced for such a good whisky, you can find it here: Glenturret Peated Edition

The free resource mentioned in the podcast is the audio download of Greg telling us how to properly taste and appreciate whisky. This is a bonus not to be missed! You can get it here.

In the Monarch of the Month series, we continue going through the monarchs and in this episode learn all about King Edward III.

Enjoy the show.