Teaninich Single Malt Whisky

Teaninich is a workhorse distillery used to produce spirit for Diageo’s blended whiskies, most notably Johnnie Walker and the legendary VAT69 blend. The facility is based just north of Inverness, close to the notorious Dalmore distillery.

Teaninich distillery was founded in 1817 by Hugh Munro, who owned the Teaninich estate on which the distillery was built. The facility changed ownership multiple times before being taken over by Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1933. The distillery was closed between 1939 and 1946 due to issues with barley shortages during the war, but then remained unchanged until 1970. DCL then built a second facility on the same grounds, and for a number of years the two operated side by side. However, in 1984 the original building was mothballed, followed by the newer building a year later. The new building re-commenced production in 1991, but the older building never started producing again and was decommissioned in 1999.

There have been very few official bottlings of single malt from Teaninich due to its focus on producing spirits for blended whiskies; the only widely available single malt is the Flora & Fauna 10 year old expression which was released in 1992. There have been occasional independent bottlings from the distillery, but these are also quite rare. In early 2014, Diageo announced plans to undertake extensive refurbishment at Teaninch distillery, and almost double the production capacity.