Lorna Chase is quietly redefining what English single malt can be: namely, rooted in real farming, patiently aged and projecting a vivid sense of place.
For the Chase family, spring is no longer just a season on the farm—it now has a flavour. The Orchard Cut, Rosemaund Farm Distillery’s latest release, is a 10-year-old English single malt drawn entirely from ex‑bourbon casks and conceived as their “true taste of English spring”: orchard‑led, bright and quietly energising.
At the label’s centre is co-founder and marketing director Lorna Chase—a loyal, hard‑working and ambitious brand builder with a track record in growing British food-anddrink imprints on the global stage. “We’re not looking for the darkest or richest whisky,” she says. “We’re searching for the one that feels most alive.”
Born in Harrogate in 1987, Lorna grew up on a North Yorkshire farm of stone walls, horses and dogs, where daily life followed the rhythm of the seasons rather than a conventional nine‑to‑five routine. Her father died when she was three, leaving her mother with three young daughters and a farm to run—an early lesson in resilience, loyalty and sticking together in the toughest times.
After studying at Harper Adams University in Shropshire and a formative spell at Tyrrells Crisps, she joined the founding team at Chase Distillery in 2008, helping, as global marketing manager, turn a small Herefordshire start‑up into one of the UK’s most admired craft-spirits producers. The sale of Chase to Diageo in 2021—reported to be in the region of £70 million though never officially disclosed—was a professional high point. It also felt like losing part of her own identity. But the chance to reclaim it came in 2024: she bought back the original farm and distillery at Rosemaund with her husband Harry and brother‑in‑law James, and relaunched the site as a separate, field‑to‑bottle whisky venture.
Rosemaund sits in the agricultural heart of Herefordshire, surrounded by apple orchards and red, barley‑growing soils. It is a genuine farm distillery: heritage Maris Otter barley is grown regeneratively on an estate which has its own water source, and casks maturing in converted farm buildings.
Lorna oversees the story, sustainability and product integrity across every touchpoint. The debut Rosemaund Farm Distillery 10 Year Old Single Malt English Whisky, made from bourbon and sherry casks filled between 2014 and 2016, arrived unusually mature by English standards— rounded, orchard‑fruited and softly spiced— while The Orchard Cut shifts the register towards something greener, fresher and more overtly spring‑like. Early tastings by specialist titles have already marked out the inaugural 10 year old as a serious, distinctly English addition to the category.
Alongside Lorna and the Chase family stands film director Guy Ritchie: not as a badge‑on celebrity, but as a creative collaborator who has invested both capital and time in the project, designing the Wild Kitchen feasting tables and quietly weaving the whisky into his storytelling world.
As a female entrepreneur in a traditionally male‑dominated industry, Lorna brings creative leadership, empathy and a modern voice to a project that favours provenance and patience over scale. Her hope is simple: that a new generation of drinkers will stay open‑minded about whisky, and find an English single malt that genuinely tastes of the farm from which it comes.
