Earlier this year, I sat down with Matt McKay for Whisky Magazine to explore the quiet disappearance — and long-anticipated revival — of The London Distillery Company (TLDC). It was a story about unfinished ideas: a distillery that helped spark London’s whisky revival in 2011, only to fall silent, with only a handful of bottlings and a lot of unanswered potential.

Now TLDC is officially back in the market, and the company’s first new release in years has just been announced. Renascence – The Revival Release is built from the remaining stock laid down during TLDC’s original years — casks that survived the collapse, the limbo, and the reawakening.

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A revival with substance

The name ‘Renascence’ means a rebirth or revival, and that’s exactly what this bottling represents. The whisky has been created from casks filled between 2011 and 2020, during the original company’s operating window. Some of these were produced at the original Battersea site — the first new whisky distillery in the capital since Lea Valley closed in 1903 — while others may have been filled under later ownership before operations ceased.

Regardless of fill date, the through-line here is character. The whisky was made using Plumage Archer, a heritage barley variety that was once a staple in early 20th-century whisky production. TLDC built its early identity around this kind of historic raw material — and Renascence stays true to that legacy.

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The specs

• Name: Renascence – The Revival Release
• Cask types: Refill barrels and 1st fill sherry casks
• ABV: 58%
• Outturn: 410 bottles
• Price: £89
• Available: 6th June, via Berry Bros. & Rudd

The official tasting notes speak of stewed berries, toasted oak, roasted barley, Turkish delight, and warming cask spice — a profile that promises both richness and restraint.

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Between the lines

Renascence isn’t trying to pretend the past didn’t happen. TLDC went into administration in 2020 after a run of financial and strategic stumbles. Much of the whisky community assumed the brand was lost.

Now, under new ownership (Gleann Mòr Spirits) and with Matt McKay at the helm, it’s been carefully brought back — not as a reboot, but as a continuation of an idea that was never fully realised.

That comes with challenges. TLDC is currently a distillery without walls: no active stills, no new make spirit being laid down — yet. The long-term goal is to rebuild and resume distilling, but this first release is about proving the old spirit still has something to say.

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A taste of what might have been

There’s a certain romance in seeing TLDC back on a label. But romance alone won’t carry it. Renascence is a chance to show what could have been, and perhaps what could still be.

In a landscape increasingly saturated with young whisky at triple-digit prices, the £89 tag for a heritage-barley single malt at 58% ABV feels refreshingly sane — and maybe even a little generous. It’s not trying to make its name overnight. It’s asking to be tasted, not collected.

For more on the background and how this revival came together, my full Whisky Magazine interview with Matt McKay is here:
Matt McKay on the Resurrection of The London Distillery Company