Production Process

How We Make England’s Best Whisky

From barley to bottle, every stage of Dartmoor Whisky is shaped by tradition, local ingredients and careful craftsmanship. Discover how our spirit is brewed, distilled and matured to create the distinctive expressions found across our range.

Dartmoor Whisky is truly a product of the South West, made using local ingredients wherever possible.

Our barley is grown by Tim Cox at Preston Farm, just up the road from our distillery in Dartmoor.

Since Tuckers Maltings in Newton Abbot sadly closed its doors, our barley is now malted at in Somerset. Warminster are Britain’s oldest working maltings and malt barley using the traditional techniques of germination floors and good old-fashioned manpower, turning the barley with a malt shovel daily.

Our beer wash is brewed by local cask ale producers to our recipe, specified by our Master Distiller Frank McHardy.

The primary distillation takes the beer wash from around 9% to 25% ABV. After three primary distillations, the ‘low wines’ are returned to the still to produce the finished ‘water of life’ at around 70% ABV.

Our spirit is then transferred into our carefully-sourced barrels for the maturation process to begin. Dartmoor Whisky is matured in three barrel types to create our three core expressions: American oak Bourbon barrels, French oak wine barrels and Spanish sherry barrels.

Each barrel gives a different expression to the finished spirit, with some bottled from a single barrel type and some according to our Master Distiller’s selection.