There is now an opportunity to oppose the GI for English Whisky suggested by the English Whisky Guild. It has upset the SWA - so its probably a good thing! Worth a read.
English Whisky/English Whiskey: opportunity to oppose an application to register those names as a geographical indication
I read a BBC article that the Scottish Whiskey people aren't happy that English whiskey would have a more relaxed definition of what can be called single malt whiskey, diluting the "single malt" term. I don't see much problem with it being a protected term, but is there really anyone out there trying to pass off non-English whiskey as English?
Yes. There have been a couple a bottlings that were a blend of cheap Scotch and Irish passed off as English. Not common, but it will prevent running into problems like the Japanese have where most of their 'japanese whisky' was actually Scotch.
The definition of single malt is consistant with everywhere else in the world (including Wales) except Scotland. The SWA are upset because England will allow mashing at a local a brewery instead of being at the distillery. They say the whisky loses it 'sense of place' - except scottish distilleries buy their grain from Canada and Poland and mature almost everything in a huge warehouse outside Glasgow -hypocrites!. At least the English GI unsists on UK grain!
There are no Scottish whiskey people. You might be thinking of a different island nearby 😉