Distilleries

Aultmore Distillery: The Dram of the Buckie Road

For a century locals asked for 'a nip of the Buckie Road' rather than Aultmore by name. Here is the full story of Dewar's quiet Speyside workhorse: its 1970s rebuild, the £15 million expansion, wha...

Strathmill Distillery: The Purifier Malt Behind J&B

Strathmill guide: the converted oatmeal mill on the River Isla, the rare purifier stills that make its light, orange-and-honey spirit, its sixty years inside J&B Rare, our five Strathmill singl...

Miltonduff Distillery: The Speyside Malt at the Heart of Ballantine's

Miltonduff has spent two centuries making the clean, pear-scented Speyside malt at the core of Ballantine's, from a mill once owned by monks. Here is the full story: the blessed Black Burn, the Lom...

Craigellachie Distillery: Speyside's Meaty, Worm-Tub Maverick

Worm tubs, short fermentations and a sulphury new make that turns tropical with age: Craigellachie is the heavyweight of Speyside. We have bottled it many times, from bourbon casks to sherried octa...

Glenfarclas Distillery: Six Generations, Direct Fire and Sherry Oak

Bought by John Grant for £511 19s 0d in 1865 and still owned by his family, Glenfarclas direct-fires the largest stills on Speyside and fills almost everything into Oloroso sherry oak. Here is the ...

Glen Elgin Distillery: The Blenders' Secret Behind White Horse

Glen Elgin guide: Charles Doig's famous prophecy, the worm tubs and 90-hour fermentations behind its lush fruity malt, the White Horse connection, our own port, sherry and rye cask bottlings, and w...

Auchroisk Distillery: The Speyside Malt Nobody Could Pronounce

Built to feed the J&B blend and rebranded as The Singleton because nobody could say its name, Auchroisk is one of Speyside's great unsung workhorses — and one of the distilleries we have bottle...

Dailuaine Distillery: The Green Vale That Gave Whisky the Pagoda

Every pagoda roof in Scotch whisky copies a design first built at Dailuaine in 1889. We explore Speyside's meaty, blend-bound heavyweight, from Charles Doig's original pagoda to the nine single cas...

The Balvenie Distillery: Dufftown's Keeper of the Five Rare Crafts

The Balvenie still grows barley, turns a working malting floor and keeps its own coppersmith and coopers. Here is the full story of Dufftown's hand-crafted Speysider, and an honest answer to the qu...

Inchgower Distillery: The Manzanilla of Speyside

Inchgower is the only Scotch distillery ever owned by a town council, and the salty, spicy Speyside workhorse behind Bell's. We have bottled it more than a dozen times — here is the full story, fro...