The Spirits Business reported on Wednesday that Guy Ritchie, a film director known for movies like “Snatch” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” invested in an English whisky brand called Chase Distillery. The distillery launched its first single malt whisky after producing vodka and gin for several years.
Chase Distillery’s English single malt boasts a 10-year age statement and is comprised of Maris Otter barley. According to The Spirits Business, the whisky’s origins have been a long time coming.
The distillery launched in 2008 and was founded by the Chase family. In 2018, Diageo purchased the distillery — along with 500 casks of aging whisky. Eventually, Diageo closed the facility and moved Chase’s production process to Scotland in January. Yet the Chase family re-bought the distillery, Guy Ritchie invested in the property.
The English Single Malt is named Roseamaund and it clocks in at 47.2% ABV and was distilled and aged near old apple orchards on the Chase family’s farm, and the outlet reports that this deeply influences the final whisky. Just 2,700 bottles exist of this inaugural release and they are available through a ballot system.
As for the partnership with Ritchie, the founders of the distillery shared that the partnership was organic.
“We’ve known Guy for a while, he shares our love of farming and kind of countryside and the values of family,” James Chase said, according to The Spirits Business. “We were introduced through a friend, and kind of how it happened with Tristian, and after a few whiskies and some promising conversation, he was really kind of wanting to get involved in a project like this.”
Ritchie apparently intends to give the whisky some screen time in potential projects, but the founders share that they “can’t give away too much.” The brand shared that Rosemaund Whisky will also make appearances at Ritchie’s pub in London.
Going forward, Chase Distillery intends to drop other whiskies through ballots that are in alignment with the farming seasons. Though Chase Distillery doesn’t quite have a core whisky at the moment, the founders definitely have that on their radar.
“These first few batches, I think there will be variances to them, until we’re distilling consistently,” said James in a statement. “We start distilling again next year, but the model is to release two ballots next year, and they will be slightly different in flavor and taste. But I’ll never say never. At the moment, we’re just focusing on this batch; we’re just not at the scale yet to kind of have a main consistent line that we want to make volume with. It’s really not the business plan or model.”
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