Circumstance Distillery
Actor-turned-bartender Alex Wolpert left drama school in 2006 and spent his 20s living in East London working behind bars and finishing at 4am. At the time, big brands were investing big to stay big.
Exasperated by customers calling for only expensive brands to make what they thought was ‘the perfect drink’, Alex thought maybe the time had come to quit his job and to fight for everyone that wanted quality without the vanity pricing and packaging. Alex sought out industry advice on how and what to do. The resounding feedback was don’t do it. So he did it anyway.
Six months later he borrowed against his Hackney flat, convinced the bar owners of Barworks (his bosses at the time) to invest in his vision and cycled the waterways of East London until he found a disused glue factory warehouse-cum-boozer that had closed down, next to Victoria Park. He then ordered two copper pot stills from Germany and started making whisky.
It took 8 years until it was ready to share on any commercial scale, but boy was it worth the wait. East London Liquor may be long-time neighbours of Scotch, but when it comes to their whisky, they’re the new kids on the block.
They’ve taken the best bits from the whisky category and thrown in their East London hard graft to make sure what goes into the glass at the end of the day is the best it can possibly be. They’re less about following rules for rules’ sake and more about seeing where fresh ideas can go.
‘New World Whisky’ just got bigger. Australia are doing it. Denmark are doing it. Damn, even Finland are getting in on the action… and so are East London. It may be ‘down the road’ from kilts, antlers and rolling hills, but what they put in their bottles is anything but. It’s led to long-fermentation, funky yeast strains and barrel-ageing combos that make the old school boys fall off their chairs.
That’s booze with bottle. That’s East London Whisky.
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