Glen Elgin Single Malt Whisky

Glen Elgin distillery sits just a few miles south of where the river Lossie emerges from the sea. It was the final distillery to be constructed during the whisky boom of the late 1890s and architect Charles Doig predicted it would be the final Speyside distillery to be built for 50 years – he was right; the next was Tormore in 1958.

Arriving at the tail end of this boom caused a number of problems in the early years; within a year the owners sold for less than a third of their investment, production was proving difficult due to an unreliable local water source, and a request for nearby railway construction was denied. It wasn’t until 1907 that the distillery found a steady owner and began producing consistently. Around 1930 the distillery was licensed to White Horse Distillers Ltd (which later became part of current owners Diageo). Considerable expansion and refurbishment of the building took place in 1964, including increasing form two stills to six stills.

Despite those increases, the distillery still has a relatively small production capacity by modern standards – with the ability to produce around 1.8 million litres of pure alcohol each year. Most of this is used in the popular White Horse blended whiskies. However there is also a 12 year old expression commonly available and well regarded within the whisky community. Glen Elgin malts have regularly been rated as ‘top class’ by master blenders and an expression was also added to the Classic Malts range in 2005 along with Caol Ila, Cardhu and Clynelish.