From our hands to yours; Full Circle

Rose Kentish is focused on possibilities, not obstacles.

An award-winning winemaker who has sought out knowledge from around the world, Rose is captivated by the potential that lies in transformation. Increasingly, she’s agnostic about her medium – distilling spirits on the island of Corsica, bringing the art of distillation to Full Circle Spirit's making team or studying perfumery in France; it's all taken in stride as she continues her decades-long winemaking and distilling trade. 

When Sparkke’s operations flagged during the early months of COVID-19, Rose refused to follow the example of breweries around the world. Instead of pouring beer down the drain, she began a small distilling pilot. At the company’s most challenging moment, she was determined to conjure something innovative and delicious.

Using her small copper still, Rose made an Amaro from Sparkke’s Cider. Out of the Hard Lemonade, she pulled a Lemon Flower Gin. With Sparkke’s all-natural Pale Ale, she leaned heavily on her maker’s instinct to meet a much greater challenge.

Whisky creation starts with grain that is malted, mashed, and fermented to create a beer wash. The wash is distilled into a spirit known as new make, which must age in barrel for at least two years to earn the title of whisky. A beer wash is akin to beer, but not the same. A finished beer is a more refined, complete beverage – something with carefully calibrated flavour. Beer wash is a raw material, with malt and yeast chosen to create a unique whisky.

For her first-ever whisky, Rose used Sparkke’s Pale Ale in place of a beer wash. Distilling the hop-heavy brew and incorporating meticulous additions of Pilsner and an IPA, she realised this was a rare opportunity – one that few whisky makers have the chance to embrace.

From her first taste of the new make as it poured off the still, Rose knew the experiment was a success. With excitement, she shared samples for nosing with some of the world’s top distillers in Scotland; the feedback was good. Very good.

After maturing in barrel for a month, the spirit revealed itself further – flavours of citrus, fresh cut hay, sweet nectar and a subtle toastiness point to the once-in-a-lifetime whisky it is destined to become.

This needed to be shared. But two or three years, while the spirit aged, would be too long to wait. 

Rose recognised the opportunity to create an immersive Full Circle experience revealing the traditional and exclusive world of whisky. With contemporary rituals, guided tastings led by Rose, invitations to learn from other experts - whisky bankers to mixologists - this journey brings an added dimension to New World whisky. 

Andy Young transforms time. With fire and oak, he creates vessels that will form a partnership with Rose’s new make as it ages into whisky.

The master cooper has been restoring barrels for some of the world’s best winemakers and distillers for more than four decades. Andy’s workshop remains traditional. His barrels are still manually stripped back, repaired or resized. In consultation with his customers, talented makers, barrels are then fire treated to achieve distiller-specific levels of toasting. There is great skill in this process and his hands hold tools from the early 1900s; they’re worn in sympathetic forms, fitting closely against his skin.

Rose and Andy select the barrels for this whisky one by one – making careful decisions influenced by the knowledge of the provenance of each barrel. They choose barrels from around the world that once contained Bourbon, Apera or Muscat. Size, levels of toasting and the characteristics each selection will contribute to the future whisky are also fully considered.

Soon, the new make will be put into the specially prepared oak, left to mature undisturbed. With every passing month, as the spirit transforms, its monetary value will rise. Whisky is often treated as an investment, as much as a pleasure to be enjoyed in glass. Sometimes called whisky banking, investors buy barrels of new make that appreciate in value over time. Even a relatively young whisky can sell for more than ten times the new make’s original value.

Understanding that a journey is worth more than simply money, the Full Circle Spirits team has kept some of the new make apart, issuing a special invitation for those who are ready.