Yorkshire’s first distillery celebrates world whisky award as it arrives in USA

Spirit of Yorkshire's Filey Bay Flagship single malt whisky was awarded a silver medal in the Other Single Malt Whisk(e)y category at the 22nd annual judging of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Of the win, Spirit of Yorkshire's Whisky director Joe Clark said: "A silver medal-winning whisky is classified as an outstanding spirit that shows refinement, finesse, and complexity; these winners are among the best examples of their categories.

"With more than 5,000 entries from more than 40 countries, the San Francisco event is now the largest spirits competition in the world. The fact that our four-year-old field-to-bottle whisky was one of only two English whiskies out of the 128 medal winners bodes well for Filey Bay Flagship's success in the USA."

The USA is the latest export market that has an appetite for Yorkshire whisky. Distributor, ImpEx Beverages Inc's first consignment landed on American shores in March and included Filey Bay Flagship, Filey Bay STR Finish #2 and a rare Filey Bay Fino Single Cask #674. 22.5% of Filey Bay's single malt whisky is now being exported to countries including Italy, Germany, France and Poland.

Hunmanby-based Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery is Yorkshire's first single malt whisky distillery and is one of only a handful of distilleries around the world (including Scotland) that uses 100% homegrown barley for its whisky production.