The city of Dufftown is a small market town in the heart of Speyside and was founded in 1817 by the fourth Earl of Fife, James Duff. The Earl was a local laird and built Dufftown, initially named Balvenie, to give employment after the Napoleonic Wars. Dufftown Distillery – a converted meal mill – was founded in Speyside in 1896, and still draws its pure water from the same spring. …Read More
Cardhu
In 1811 John and Helen Cumming sited their first still at Cardow Farm on Mannoch Hill, high above the River Spey. At this location, spring water, naturally softened by rising up through a layer of peat, bubbled from the ground. It is alleged that Helen Cumming distilled the first gallon of Cardhu, the only malt whisky to be pioneered by a woman. For many years Helen Cumming produced only the …Read More
Talisker
Here, lodged far from any neighbour in the small coastal community of Carbost at the head of Loch Harport, is one of the finest yet most remote distilleries of all. It was in 1825 that came here from the smaller island of Eigg, first to bring sheep to Skye, then to bring Skye’s wild spirit to the world. Leasing Macleod land at Carbost, the MacAskills built Talisker Distillery in 1830 …Read More
Royal Lochnagar
Royal Lochnagar was awarded its royal prefix in 1848 – following a visit and tasting by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The event came about after the distillery manager John Begg (somewhat cheekily) dropped a note to their Royal Highnesses directly inviting them to pay a visit and sample the delights of the distillery and rather impudently, he mentioned that if they didn’t arrive by 6pm they would miss the …Read More
Glen Elgin
Glen Elgin is an unusually distinctive Speyside single malt, from a little known traditional distillery, that finds its home 10 miles south of where the river Lossie exits to the sea and about 40 miles east of Inverness. Founded at the end of the whisky boom in 1898, it was built and designed by the notable distillery architect Charles Doig of Elgin. Today, as the summer house-martins swoop among the …Read More
Clynelish
Distilleries here on the stormy sea coast of Sutherland were forever few and far between, yet malt whisky enthusiasts have always championed Clynelish™ over many more famous names. When the original distillery was built in 1819 by the future Duke of Sutherland, the quality of Clynelish™ whisky was so prized that only private customers were supplied. Over the years, Clynelish™ has continued to be held in high regard by experts. …Read More
Caol Ila
Nestled in a hidden cove near Port Askaig, the Caol Ila (pronounced “Cull Eela”) distillery sent its whisky to market by sea for over a hundred years. Sniff the air over a glass and smoky, sea-fresh aromas recall an age, not so long ago, when fishing and cutting peat were the traditional occupations in this part of Scotland. Few men make a living cutting peat on the island today, but …Read More
Lagavulin
Islay has been cradle to many things, early Christianity for one. But it is in malt whisky distilling that this fertile island, some twenty miles by twenty-five, has found its modern vocation. Here, in the still mainly Gaelic speaking community around Port Ellen, on the island’s south eastern shores, twelve men today craft pungent, dark Lagavulin™, made on this historic site at least since 1816. The sea has shaped everything …Read More
Glenkinchie
Glenkinchie lies, as the name might suggest, in a glen of the Kinchie Burn near the village of Pencaitland, East Lothian. It is situated about 15 miles from Edinburgh. The distillery is set in farmland. The name ‘Kinchie’ is a corruption of ‘De Quincy’, the original owners of the land. Its origins date back to around 1825 when it was founded by brothers John and George Rate. The original name …Read More
Dalwhinnie
When the water you start with comes from the highest mountain source of any malt, you expect something rather fine. And Dalwhinnie™, for whisky writer Roger Voss a “surprisingly soft whisky…from Scotland’s highest, most remote distillery”, does not disappoint. The source, Lochan an Doire-Uaine, (Gaelic for “lake in the green grove”), lies at 2,000 feet in the Drumochter Hills. From it, all the pure spring water used in distilling Dalwhinnie™ …Read More