Distilleries

Springbank Distillery: Campbeltown's Stubborn Survivor

The last great Campbeltown house malts, distils and bottles everything on one site, makes three different whiskies from one pair of malting floors, and cannot come close to meeting demand. Here is ...

Linkwood Distillery: The Whisky Nobody Was Allowed to Change

Blenders guard Linkwood so jealously that barely a drop reaches bottles under its own name. From the manager who protected the stillhouse spiders to the swans on the dam, here is the full story of ...

Talisker Distillery: The Peppery King of Skye

Skye's oldest distillery has been making peppery, maritime malt since 1830, in stills rebuilt as exact replicas after the 1960 fire. Here is the full Talisker story, and an honest answer to the que...

Benrinnes Distillery: Speyside's Meaty Secret

Flooded, burned and rebuilt on the slopes of the mountain that names it, Benrinnes makes Speyside's meatiest malt, almost all of it destined for blends. We have bottled around twenty casks of The B...

Laphroaig Distillery: Islay's Great Divider

Every independent bottler sells Laphroaig, and almost none of them are allowed to say so. The story of Islay's most divisive malt takes in a fatal vat of pot ale, a Prohibition loophole, a secretar...

Blair Athol Distillery: The Highland Heart of Bell's

Everyone has tasted Blair Athol; almost nobody knows it. Here is the story of the Pitlochry distillery behind Bell's, its nutty, sherry-loving malt, our dozen-plus single cask bottlings of it, and ...

Ardbeg Distillery: The £16 Million Comeback

A single 1975 cask of Ardbeg sold for £16 million; the whole distillery cost £7 million in 1997. The full story of Islay's great comeback — how Ardbeg makes its citric, tarry whisky, why independen...

Mannochmore Distillery: The Quiet Speysider Behind the Black Whisky

Mannochmore made Loch Dhu, the notorious black whisky, but its real story is a light, floral Speyside spirit that blenders have trusted for fifty years. We have bottled more than a dozen casks of i...

Lagavulin Distillery: Islay's Slow-Burning Legend

Lagavulin distils slower than anyone on Islay and makes you wait sixteen years for the result. Here is the full story of the Kildalton legend, and an honest answer to the question every cask buyer ...

Glentauchers Distillery: The Speyside Malt the Blenders Keep

Almost nobody writes seriously about Glentauchers, yet blenders prize it and independent bottlers compete for its casks. Having bottled it from 7 to 22 years old, we explain why this Ballantine's w...