A Tasmanian-inspired whisky distillery in Yorkshire, Cooper King is the story of a husband-and-wife team Chris Jaume and Abbie Neilson taking a chance. They aren’t industry veterans nor distilling graduates, he’s an architect and she has a Ph.D. in biomedical science. One game-changing trip down under saw them inspired by the likes of Peter Bignell at the Belgrove Distillery to construct a distillery themselves, piece by piece, with a decidedly local focus.
A stint at Redlands Distillery’s week-long distilling school followed, which included sessions with Bill Lark, a shareholder who also founded the nearby Lark Distillery before they returned home and chose a site located just ten miles north of the historic city of York, nestled between the rolling contours of the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the rugged Yorkshire Dales National Park.
What the duo founded is a truly sustainable distillery. They source Maris Otter barley from Yorkshire farms and wooden casks from a local cooperage, as well as honey from their own bee hives and locally grown Yorkshire lavender. All the boxes used for dispatching orders are made by a local manufacturer using recycled card and FSC-certified paper, and are 100% recyclable. And for every 700ml bottle of Dry or Herb Gin removes 1kg of CO2e from the atmosphere and plants one square metre of native UK woodland.
Right now Cooper King has only released white spirits (including some promising new make) to enjoy, but whisky is very much on the way. We can’t wait.
Fun fact #1: Ahead of travelling to Tasmania, they got in touch with MoM’s very own NPD and sales director, Ben Ellefsen, to offer their services as roving reporters. You can find the stories they wrote on our blog.
Fun fact #2: The ‘Cooper King’ name is taken from two extraordinary family volumes, hand-drawn by Jaume’s great-great-grandad, Charles Cooper King, born in 1843. The Cooper King logo is a stylised version of a crest created by Charles in the records as a result of his findings.