Genesis is exactly what its name suggests: The Lakes Distillery's commemorative single malt marking the beginning of its whisky story. The distillery, set in a restored Victorian model farm at Setmurthy on the banks of the River Derwent, laid down its first casks in late 2014, and Genesis was conceived as a tribute to those earliest days of Lakeland whisky making.
Bottled at 46% ABV and non-chill filtered, it is a softer, more accessible expression than the cask-strength Whiskymaker's Reserves — a whisky designed to welcome, not to challenge. The cask composition leans on bourbon and sherry oak in a gentler proportion than the Reserve series, letting the bright fruity character of the young Cumbrian spirit come forward.
The nose is poached pear, vanilla custard, honeyed barley, with a faint waft of sherried raisin behind. The palate is soft and honeyed — orchard fruit, shortbread, light caramel, dried apricot — and a gentle sherry warmth rises slowly beneath, a nod to the richer releases elsewhere in the range.
The finish is medium in length, clean, with honey, a little oak spice and a last note of baked apple. Genesis is not trying to be the grandest statement on The Lakes Distillery's shelf, and that modesty is its charm. It is the quiet, welcoming voice at the start of the story — a Cumbrian dram that remembers how it began and invites you to begin with it.
Set against the cask-strength drama of the Whiskymaker's Reserves, Genesis is deliberately approachable: a dram for afternoons as much as evenings, for newcomers to English whisky as much as seasoned collectors. And there is something genuinely moving about a distillery old enough to look back on its first spirit with fondness, and confident enough to bottle that backward glance without embellishment.
