Frequently Asked Questions
About the whisky
What makes Manx Whisky unique?
The most notable thing is our barley. We use barley that is grown on the Isle of Man and we floor malt it ourselves in the distillery. This means that we handle the entire process from picking up the barley from the farmer to the shipping of the bottles. Barley in - whisky out!
This approach to doing the full process inhouse was once common but it is incredibley rare today.
Where is your whisky distilled and matured?
We distill it in our distillery outside Baldrine. Maturation is done nearby and in proper Manx conditions - generally cool with high humidity.
What types of whisky do you produce? (single malt, blended etc)
Aside from one cask, we produce Isle of Man Single Malt Whisky. The one cask that isn't Single Malt Whisky is an experiment where we used a mash bill similar to Irish Pot Still Whisky (a large portion of unmalted barley plus some oats).
What ingredients do you use in your whisky?
We use Manx grown barley, excellent Manx tap water and yeast. The yeast is a mix of distillers yeast, beer brewing yeast and local wild yeast cultures that we propagate ourselves.
How long do you age your whisky?
That depends alot on the whisky and the cask used. The minimum maturation on the Isle of Man is 3 years but many of the casks we are laying down are for the very long term - 10, 15 and even 20 years.
Purchasing and availability
How do I get a bottle?
Sign up to the newsletter! Since we release really small quantities we rarely have bottles in stock. Usually we give priority to our newsletter subscribers so if you want to maxmise you chance of securing a bottle - sign up!
Do you ship internationally?
Unfortunately no - we only ship to the Isle of Man, the UK and Northern Ireland.
Is your whisky available on local shops or only online?
Online only. We don't produce many bottles and if we start selling it through distributors and retailers there simply isn't enough margin left for us to run the business.
Are there limited editions or special release bottles?
All our bottles are limited editions. We don't do standard releases and don't have a core range. Each batch is unique and is made in tiny quantities - the largest one to date is 90 bottles.
Can I subscribe or pre-order future releases?
No. We don't take pre-orders and we allocate bottles via ballot or by giving newsletter subscribers priority access.
Production process
What water source do you use in production?
Local tap water. The local water is of very good quality - nice and soft and it does not require any further adjustments. The only thing we do is to filter the water used to dilute the spirit to cask fill strength.
Do you use locally grown barley or other local ingredients?
Yes, we only use local barley. (We have made one cask with non local heritage barley strain as an experiment). Our barley is grown on Ballavel farm outside Castletown.
The only ingredient that isn't local is the distillers yeast we use although we do always include some yeast that we have propagated and cultivated ourselves which definitely qualifies a local yeast.
What type of casks do you use for aging?
A wide variety of different types of sherry casks and bourbon casks. The smallest casks are firkings (50l) and the biggest ones to date are hogsheads (250l). We are not big users of wine casks or other more exotic varieties although we have one red wine cask from Chateau Mouton-Rothschild.
Is your whisky chill-filtered or natural cask strength?
We don't do any chill-filtering and our whiskies are usually bottled at natural cask strength.
Visitor experience
Can I visit your distillery?
Unfortunately, no. We are not set up for visitors and it is a working environment.
Do you offer tours or tastings?
We don't offer tours but we do regularly do tastings around the Island. Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with the events we have planned.
Is there a visitor centre or a gift shop?
No, unfortunately not. We do sell some merchandise on our site and at our events.
Brand and heritage
What's the history behind Manx Whisky Company?
When we moved to the Isle of Man we were surprised to learn that there was no locally produced whisky. Given the location - between Ireland and Scotland - the seemed like an opportunity to good to not to pass up so we decided to create Manx Whisky Company to produce the most local whisky we could think of.
Why did you choose to produce whisky on the Isle of Man?
The Isle of Man is located between by whisky giants Scotland and Ireland and it seemed odd that no once produced whsiky here.
Is Manx Whisky influenced by Scottish, Irish or its own tradition?
We are primarily influenced by the Scottish whisky making traditions. That being said, we have also tried creating an Irish inspired version of Pot Still Whisky.