The American who built England’s whisky powerhouse
Daniel Szor, founder and CEO of the Cotswolds Distillery
Daniel Szor walked away from currency trading, poured his life savings into copper stills and built a distillery in the Cotswolds from scratch. Today it leads the English whisky revival. He tells Tom Pattinson why he never intended to think small
Getting to the Cotswolds Distillery is half the fun. The drive winds through honeyed villages, white-stone cottages and thatched roofs that have made this postcard corner of central England a magnet for domestic and international holidaymakers for centuries.
More recently the Cotswolds has been labelled the Hamptons of England, drawing American expats to its green and pleasant lands. They slot easily into the more established Chipping Norton set, made up of much of the British establishment including former prime minister David Cameron, TV producer and Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth Murdoch, Jeremy Clarkson, David Beckham and Kate Moss. If you were big in the 90s, the chances are you have a decent Cotswolds pile to retreat to.
Private members’ club Soho House spotted the trend and opened its farmhouse a decade ago to cater to the well-heeled yet slightly less hedonistic set. More recently both Estelle Manor and The Club by Bamford have launched, tipping the area further towards Mayfair in mud-splattered boots.
Dan Szor was one of them. An American from New York, he moved to London after stints on Wall Street and in Paris. He was part of that well-heeled US expat gang, working in currency trading and spending holidays galavanting around Europe enjoing fine food and wine. The Cotswolds was a regular weekend escape.
When his wife became ill in 2009, everything shifted. When she came round from anaesthesia after an eight-hour surgery, “I literally said, ‘we’re going to buy a weekend home in the Cotswolds’,” he tells me.
“You realise life is very short. We had a three-year-old daughter. I was going off to a job I really didn’t like. I thought, ‘what can I do to make a difference in our life?’”
He sold up in London, moved permanently into the Cotswolds bolt hole, and opened what is today England’s largest whisky distillery.
I meet Szor in the restaurant at the distillery. It is so busy with young couples grabbing coffee, mothers at lunch and a steady flow of tourists that I have to share a sofa to find a seat. Szor joins me but is constantly up and down greeting regulars, guests and staff. A tall, stern-looking elderly woman pops over to say hello. She turns out to be the artist whose work adorns not only the walls but the bottle of the distillery’s recently released Wychwood Harvest.
To find some peace we head out for a walk through the sprawling site.
The visitor centre of the Cotswolds Distillery
The Islay inspiration
Szor’s interest in whisky began after he was dragged to a Scotch Malt Whisky Society tasting in Paris, where he encountered single cask and cask-strength drams for the first time. “I was completely blown away,” he recalls. “They were all so different.”
The annual “war and wine” trips that took him to former battlefields and vineyards across Europe evolved to include distillery visits, and in 2002 they travelled to Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay shortly after it had reopened.
James McEwan, Bruichladdich’s master distiller, persuaded him to buy a cask and Szor’s whisky journey had officially commenced.
A decade later that trip to Islay would shape his life. The weekend home became permanent as he confronted the fact that the City no longer satisfied him. Career advisers were consulted and exit strategies considered but the idea that changed the direction of his life was outside his back window.
“I saw the barley and the first thing I thought of was Islay,” he says. “I thought of the local barley here and 30 million visitors a year and I thought of Daylesford Farm down the road and the way the brand of the Cotswolds appealed to aspirational people and thought ‘we could do this.’ That was the dream.”
The seed fully germinated, Szor and his wife searched for a suitable property. Planning rules in the Cotswolds are notoriously strict, but eventually a site was secured in summer 2013. Renovations ran into early 2014. The stills arrived on 24 June 2014, and the first mash took place on 5 September. A distillery was born.
Szor phoned Bruichladdich’s McEwan. “I’ve got this crazy idea which involves taking my life savings and my wife’s life savings and kind of pouring it into a whisky distillery. I know nothing about this business. Please tell me if I am crazy,” he laughs.
McEwan loved it. He introduced him to Harry Coburn of Bowmore Distillery and to the late Jim Swan, often dubbed the Einstein of whisky.
Inside the stillhouse
Mary keeps on burnin’
As I arrive, the visitor centre immediately evokes nearby Soho Farmhouse. No accident. Szor downloaded its planning drawings and asked his architect to take inspiration. Today more than 100,000 people visit the distilleries visitor centre each year.
We walk through the guts of the distillery, past the original half-ton mash tun, 2,500-litre washbacks and 1,600-litre spirit stills.
Szor is disarmingly likeable. There is no rush. A smile rests easily on his face, pride and excitement flickering in equal measure.
He introduces me to the copper pot stills, Mary and Janice. “All of our stills are musical ladies,” he grins. Mary is Proud Mary because she “keeps on burnin’” and Janice “takes a little piece of the heart”.
“By 2016 we were doing double shift seven days a week,” he says. It was the inflection point. All in became the only option.
He points to bins, hoppers and hulking machinery. “We didn’t have that, we didnt have this,” he says.
“We needed to somehow get 500 kilo bags of unground malt which we got from our wonderful maltings in Warminster and put them through the mill to get them into the hopper,” he laughs. “We had to figure out how to do it. And I thought we would just have a fork lift up with the bag in the forks. But the roof was too low.”
It’s clear that that Szor enjoyed this journey of discovery. Not all things were done correctly or in the right order at first but without those learnings he wouldn’t have got to where he is today, and he certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. “I didn’t read the textbook. I have no idea. I’m just making this up as I go.”
Early bottling relied on an army of 500 volunteers known as the “Cotswolds Bottling Angels”, paid in gin. Eventually he bought a machine called Dolly so the angels would never have to work “9 to 5” again.
Crowdfunding followed and today there are more than 1,500 investors, from those who put in £20 to around a hundred who invested over £10,000. In 2023, Berry Bros. & Rudd took a 10% stake, funding further expansion, including a new two-ton system to increase production to keep up with the growing demand.
Building a house style
The Cotswolds profile is big flavour but balanced
At the core of the range sits Cotswolds Signature, a name the distillery held for years before The Lakes Distillery adopted it for its own core product. Szor describes the house profile as “big flavour but balanced.”
“And balanced for me means a balance between distillate and wood.”
The flagship Signature Single Malt, launched in October 2017, is matured in a 70% STR red wine cask and 30% ex-bourbon cask ratio, which came about, like many of the processes here, through trial and error and a lot of patience.
“I just basically did 50-50, 60-40, 70-30, 80-20, 90-10 and had a whole bunch of people taste it,” he says. “And sometimes you just hit upon the right ratio and 70-30 is so much better than either 80-20 or 60-40. The honey, the vanilla, all that stuff from the bourbon cask cuts the vinousness and the brandy likeness and the bourbon likeness of the STR.”
Founder’s Choice, from the Cask Expression Collection, leans fully into STR influence and with 100% STR it is Szor’s favourite but he is aware it might not have the wider appeal that Signature has. However it was named Best English Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards 2019, later picking up Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and a Master at the Drinks Business & The Spirits Business Spring Blind Tasting. Cotswolds Sherry Cask took Gold at the World Whiskies Awards 2025. Clearly that trial and error pays off.
Szor talks animatedly about sourcing casks from Kentucky, Spain and Portugal, about unwashed “super-duper bourbon casks” that cost more but deliver more. “I always say if there’s a more expensive way to make. I’ll find it.”
The Signature is married in what Szor calls the French way, akin to cognac production. The STR and bourbon components are disgorged, combined, diluted from around 63.5% to 50% and returned to cask for at least three months to integrate and marry.
“You know, it’s like leftover curry. It’s always better when left overnight, the flavours have had a chance to kind of come together. So, it’s quite unique. I think it’s probably relatively unique in a whiskey world,” he says.
It is unusual, though not entirely alone. The Norwegian Eiktyrne adopts a similar philosophy, with equally compelling results.
Experimentation continues. Port casks, maple syrup, tequila casks, pressure infusion. Nothing appears off limits.
Szor is as passionate about casks as he is grain
Scaling up without losing the spark
Over lunch we discuss the wider whisky market and the opportunity for English producers. Production capacity is edging towards 500,000 litres annually, placing the distillery at the front of the English pack. Exports now reach more than 35 markets including France, Germany, China and Australia and he says he isn’t afraid to put the brand in supermarkets.
“I want to deliver value. I want to deliver a great flavor-to-price ratio. Big, deep flavor at the right price,” he says. “And I’m not embarrassed about making it available in supermarkets because I’m trying to build a brand which we can scale.”
The US is central to the next phase. The recently released Highgrove Evergreen English Whisky, created with Plumage Archer barley grown on the nearby Highgrove Estate and featuring a watercolour by King Charles III, is a savvy play for American consumers.
Just this week the distillery announced a partnership with Sipwell Brands targeting Global Travel Retail, positioning English whisky in airports as distinct from Scotch without feeling obscure.
Szor is also a founder of the English Whisky Guild, created to bring together the growing number of English whisky makers in the country. Szor was the fourth English distillery, today there are, according to the Guild, 71 sites laying down English spirit.
It has been nearly a quarter of a century since he first stepped into the whisky world and during that time Szor has shifted from expat hobbyist to industry patriarch, leading the charge for English whisky with ambition, restlessness and a whole lot of trial and error.
What to take home…
Cotswolds Signature Single Malt Whisky
Still the cornerstone of the range and arguably one of the best-value single malts on the market. Matured in a 70% STR red wine to 30% ex-bourbon cask combination, married for several months in barrel and bottled at a robust strength. Expect honeyed malt and orchard fruit on the nose, a palate layered with caramelised sugars, red berries and vanilla, and a warming, balanced finish.
Highgrove Evergreen English Whisky
Created with Plumage Archer barley grown on King Charles’ Highgrove Estate and matured in bourbon and STR red wine casks. Honeyed malt and orchard fruits lead into red berry, toasted oak and soft spice, with a rich, balanced finish. The King’s watercolour that adorns the case adds collectability, but the liquid stands on its own merits.
From £100
Where to stay…
The recently re-opened Cowley Manor
Cowley Manor Experimental is a reimagined 17th-century Italianate estate in the heart of the Cotswolds that blends historic grandeur with playful eccentricity. Following a 2023 renovation by the Experimental Group, the mood is joyful and slightly surreal, with bold colours and geometric patterns offsetting original features.
The 36 bedrooms range from snug hideaways to grand manor suites, many overlooking 55 acres of Grade II listed gardens said to have inspired Lewis Carroll. Chef Jackson Boxer oversees a seasonal menu with a French accent, while the C-Side Spa offers indoor and outdoor heated pools carved into the landscape.
Rooms start from £320 per night, with suites rising to £800 depending on season. www.cowleymanorexperimental.com
