Founded in 1826, the Adelphi Distillery is now Scotland’s most acclaimed independent bottler of single casks of rare malt whisky.

Under new ownership, Adelphi continues to bottle straight from the finest casks without colouring or chill filtration and by remaining completely independent, Adelphi is able to offer bottlings from an extensive range of distilleries.

www.adelphidistillery.com

Follow your nose along the famous road from Port Ellen and you will eventually find yourself at the distillery of Ardbeg.

Ardbeg's white-washed walls can be found nestling in a rocky cove on Islay's southern tip.

Back in 1981, the distillery fell silent and was mothballed, with only very small scale distilling resuming in 1989.

Between 1990 and 1996, it opened and closed with monotonous regularity, before finally closing, seemingly for good, in 1996.

Fortunately in 1997, to the delight of fans all over the world Glenmorangie plc rescued Ardbeg and a team of dedicated souls set about repairing and reviving the distillery.

Now, once again Ardbeg flows freely.

www.ardbeg.com

Auchentoshan Distillery is a Single Malt whisky distillery in the west of Scotland. It is one of only three remaining distilleries in the Scottish Lowlands along with Bladnoch and Glenkinchie. The distillery is situated on the outskirts of Clydebank in Dumbartonshire.

Unusually for a Scottish distillery, Auchentoshan practices triple distillation. Generally the final stage of Scotch whisky production involves distilling the fermented mash in two copper stills. In Auchentoshan, a third still gives a final spirit strength of 82% ABV (164 proof). This triple distillation, in addition to an unpeated malt, gives Auchentoshan a more delicate flavour than many Scotch Whiskies. Maturation is in ex-bourbon barrels and ex-sherry butts.

Special bottlings are released periodically, including the oldest, a 50 year old Auchentoshan distilled in 1957 and released in 2008.

www.auchentoshan.co.uk

The Balvenie distillery in Dufftown was built in 1892 by W. and J. Grant, owners of the Glenfiddich distillery nearby.

More than a century later they are still 'sister stills', owned by the very same company that originally built them; William Grant and Sons.

Balvenie has no less than eight stills (4 wash stills and 4 spirit stills); two of them were added in 1965 and one in 1971.

www.thebalvenie-whisky.com

Bowmore Distillery, one of the oldest in Scotland has stood on the shores of Loch Indaal, on the Hebridean Island of Islay, since 1779.

Its close proximity to the sea is vital in determining the final character of Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Bowmore Distillery is one of an ever decreasing handful of distilleries to produce its own floor malted barley. The barley is still laboriously hand turned, by the Maltman, using the traditional wooden malt shovel.

The famous Bowmore Vaults are where Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky spends nearly all of its life resting quietly in the damp cellars below sea level.

www.bowmore.co.uk

Bruichladdich is a Gaelic reference to the ‘raised beach’ upon which the distillery is sited, on the Hebridean Isle of Islay, on Scotland’s wild west coast.

Built in 1881 by William Harvey and his brothers, it was closed down in 1994 as “surplus to requirements”.

On 19th December 2000 it was acquired by a small group of private investors led by Mark Reynier.

Following extensive renovation, the distillery recommenced distilling at 08.23 on the 29th May 2001.

Bruichladdich, now a private Scottish company operated, managed and directed on Islay.

Bruichladdich is made from an unusual marriage of manual C19 equipment, inspirational distillery design and pre-industrial distilling techniques.

500,000 - 700,000 litres are distilled annually from 100% Scottish barley – increasingly Organic and Islay grown – from different farms (terroirs), varieties and peating levels.

www.bruichladdich.com

Situated in the North East of the hebridean island of Islay, the tiny village of Bunnahabhain was first established in 1881 to house workers from the malt whisky distillery which stands there to this day and still employs the majority of the inhabitants of the village.

The distillery was built in 1881 and sits below the north-east tip of the island and just north of Port Askaig. It overlooks a narrow belt of water (the Sound of Islay) with a view of the neighbouring island of Jura.

www.bunnahabhain.com

Caol Ila is Gaelic for “Sound of Islay” in reference to the distillery's location overlooking the strait between Islay and Jura.

Founded in 1846 by Hector Henderson, the distillery did not fare well, and changed hands in 1854 when Norman Buchanan, owner of the Isle of Jura Distillery, took over.

In 1863 the business was acquired by Bulloch Lade & Co. By the 1880s over 147,000 gallons of whisky were produced there each year.

In 1920 Bulloch Lade went into voluntary liquidation, and a consortium of businessmen formed the Caol Ila Distillery Company Ltd. In 1927 the Distillers Company Limited acquired a controlling interest in Caol Ila, and in 1930 Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd obtained ownership of all the shares. The company eventually became part of Diageo.

The distillery closed during World War II, from 1942 to 1945, because of wartime restrictions on the supply of barley to distillers. From then, production continued until 1972, when the entire structure of the distillery was demolished. A larger distillery was built in the same original architectural style, and production resumed in 1974.

Caol Ila is one of the lighter Islay whiskies, pale in colour, with peaty, floral and peppery notes. In addition to being sold as a single malt, it is used heavily in blends such as Johnnie Walker and Black Bottle.

www.malts.com

Dallas Dhu Distillery was built in 1898-9 on the estate of Alexander Edward of Sanquhar by a Glasgow based whisky blending company, Wright and Grieg Ltd. Their main blend was called Roderick Dhu and sold well in the 1880s and 1890s.

Dallas Dhu's fortunes fluctuated over the following 80 years, and its ownership changed more than once. The distillery was closed from 1929 to 1936; and the stillhouse burned down in 1939, being rebuilt just in time to be closed once more during World War Two.

Significant investment in the 1960s and 1970s helped bring the distillery up to date, but by the early 1980s it was clear that there were more distilleries than could possibly be needed to meet forecast demand. By 1983 Dallas Dhu was owned by the Distillers Company, who took the decision to close some of their smaller and older distilleries to reduce their capacity and costs. One was Dallas Dhu.

www.dallasdhu.com

The Glenfiddich Distillery is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons in Dufftown, Scotland.

Founded in 1886, the Glenfiddich single malt whisky first ran from the stills on Christmas Day, 1887.

Following difficult times in the 1960s and 70s, many small, independent distillers were bought up or went out of business. In order to survive, W. Grant & Sons expanded their production of the drink, and introduced advertising campaigns, a visitors' centre and from 1957 packaged the Scotch in distinctive triangular bottles.

Later, W. Grant & Sons was one of the first distilleries to package its bottles in tubes and gift tins, as well as recognising the importance of the duty-free market for spirits. This marketing strategy was successful, and Glenfiddich has now become the world's best-selling single malt.

Sold in 180 countries, and accounts for about 35% of single malt sales.

www.glenfiddich.com

Glenmorangie is a distillery in Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland owned by The Glenmorangie Company Ltd.

Their main product is the range of Glenmorangie single malt whisky, however the malt whisky is also used in two of the company's other products, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and Highland Queen brands of blended scotch whisky.

The Glenmorangie single malt also forms part of several independent vatted malt whisky bottlings, and as such, it is often mixed with a small amount of whisky from the Glen Moray distillery.

Glenmorangie is categorised as a highland distillery and boasts the tallest stills in Scotland.

www.glenmorangie.com

Founded in 1838, Glen Ord is the only survivor from the dozen distilleries which used to operate in the area of Black Isle, on the East coast of Northern Highlands.

A visit to Glen Ord, on the edge of the Black Isle in the Highlands west of Inverness, is a delight to both the eye and the palate.

www.malts.com

The Hanyu distillery was located in the town bearing its name on the banks of the Tone River. Surrounded by barley and paddy fields, Hanyu was making malt whisky in the traditional Scottish way until 2000.

The pot stills and other equipment were saved by Ichiro Akuto, the grandson of the founders of the original distillery. He continues to distil and has been bottling the last precious casks, for which he has been awarded many accolades, both in Japan and overseas.

Founded in 1798, Highland Park distillery is the northernmost distillery in Scotland.

The name of this whisky does not refer to the area of Scotland known as The Highlands, from which the Orkney Islands are excluded, but rather to the fact that the distillery was founded on an area distinguished from a lower area nearby.

Highland Park is one of the few distilleries to malt its own barley, using locally cut peat from Hobbister Moor. The peat is then mixed with heather before being used as fuel. The malt is peated to a level of 20 parts per million phenol, and then mixed with unpeated malt produced on the Scottish mainland.

In 1984, Highland Park was the only whisky ever to have scored a rating of 100% by the regular tasting team of The Scotsman, a national newspaper of Scotland.

Whisky reviewer and expert Michael Jackson has called it "The greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky."

www.highlandpark.com

J & A Mitchell & Co Ltd, owners of Springbank, will soon open a brand new distillery within the walls of the old Glengyle Distillery buildings in Campbeltown.

www.kilkerran.com

Kilchoman, established in 2005, is a farm distillery and the first to be built on Islay for 124 years and is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland with an annual production of 90,000 litres of alcohol.

Kilchoman is one of only six distilleries to carry out traditional floor maltings, but the key difference at Kilchoman is that the barley is grown on the farm at the distillery, whereas other distilleries purchase barley from around the country.

www.kilchomandistillery.com

The Kininvie Distillery is one of the youngest distilleries in Scotland, the distillery began production on the 4th July 1990.

The distillery, whilst featuring computer controlled distillation, lacks its own mash house. Mash houses are responsible for producing the liquid needed for fermentation in the washbacks, so the liquid used by the Kininvie Distillery in their washbacks is piped from the Balvenie Distillery some 200 metres away. The distillery presently operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to meet demand.

The output from the Kininvie Distillery is normally used in William Grant & Sons blended whiskies, primarily the Clan Macgregor blended whisky, a typical blended whisky featuring a high percentage of grain whisky mixed with the single malt from the Kininvie Distillery.

There is no indication as to whether a single malt bottling will be offered in the future, either through William Grant & Sons or any of the numerous independent bottlers.

www.williamgrant.com

The Laphroaig distillery was established in 1815, by Alex and Donald Johnston.

Laphroaig is considered one of the most strongly flavoured of all scotch whiskies, and is most frequently aged to 10 years, although the 15 and 18 year old varieties are not uncommon.

In an attempt to re-create the taste of historic whiskies, Laphroaig carried out experiments. Recently the Laphroaig Quarter Cask has been introduced. By using smaller casks and by avoiding chill filtering, the Quarter Cask Single Malt is supposed to taste like the type of whisky that was distilled 100 years ago.

www.laphroaig.com

Lagavulin Single Malt is a single malt Scotch whisky produced at Lagavulin on the island of Islay. It has a powerful, peat-smoke aroma. It is described as being robustly full-bodied, well balanced, and smooth, with a slight sweetness on the palate.

The distillery of Lagavulin officially dates from 1816, when John Jonston and Archibald Campbell constructed two distilleries on the site. One of them became Lagavulin, taking over the other — which one is not exactly known. Records show illicit distillation in at least ten illegal distilleries on the site as far back as 1742, however in the 19th century, several legal battles ensued with their neighbour Laphroaig, brought about after the distiller at Lagavulin, Sir Peter Mackie, leased the Laphroaig distillery. It is said that Mackie attempted to copy Laphroaig's style. Since the water and peat at Lagavulin's premises was different from that at Laphroaig's, the result was different.

The Lagavulin distillery is located in the town of the same name.

www.malts.com

Linkwood Distillery was built in 1821 by Peter Brown, a factor of the Seafield estates in Moray and Banffshire and a man of much influence and forceful character.

Linkwood, along with most other malt whisky distilleries, closed during the Second World War because of restrictions on the supply of barley.

When the distillery reopened in 1945, another remarkable man, Roderick Mackenzie, became manager and his influence during the next 18 years ensured that Linkwood's authentic character was retained.

He believed the character of a malt whisky was a complex relationship - not just of the vessels in which it is made - but of everything in the immediate environment. Mackenzie even refused to allow new employees to remove cobwebs in the distillery.

In 1962 when it became essential to rebuild the distillery and install new stills, Mackenzie insisted that, according to custom, the new stills were exact replicas of those they replaced. He started up the new distillery just before he retired in 1963.

www.malts.com

'Macallan' is most likely derived from two Gaelic words, 'MAGH' meaning a fertile piece of ground and 'ELLAN', meaning 'of St Fillan', an Irish born monk who travelled widely in Scotland spreading Christianity during the eighth century.

www.themacallan.com

The North Port Distillery was founded in 1820 by a local farming family, the Guthries. The distillery was originally called the Townhead Distillery, and the holding company that owned the distillery was called Townhead Distillery Company.

The distillery was renamed Brechin Distillery in 1823, and in 1825 the company that owned the distillery was renamed Guthrie Martin & Company.

The Glencadam Distillery was founded in 1825 a few hundred yards from the North Port, and in a likely bid to avoid confusion the name was changed from Brechin Distillery to North Port Distillery in 1839.

The distillery and the extensive stock was purchased by Distillers Company Limited (DCL) and W.H. Holt & Company Limited in 1922 and the distillery was transferred to DCL subsidiary Scottish Malt Distillers around 1928.

Production at the distillery ceased for a period starting sometime between 1926-28, before production resumed for a short period from 1937 to the beginning of World War II, when once again production ceased, this time owing to the fuel and barley rationing instituted by the Government.

Production resumed in 1948 and continued until the distillery was mothballed for the final time in 1983.

www.diageo.com

In 1983 the Port Ellen distillery was shut down and dismantled. Today the remaining Port Ellen stores and the malting facility are owned by Diageo.

The remaining Port Ellen whisky is in high demand partly since it is very good, but also because it will never be produced again.

The malting facility is still active under the name Port Ellen Maltings and supplies the other Islay distilleries with some of their malt. This part of the former distillery is likely to survive; in an effort to conserve jobs on Islay.

www.diageo.com

The Rosebank Distillery was situated on the banks of the Forth and Clyde canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The origins of the distillery are hazy, according to some (including Scotch expert Michael Jackson) they go as far back as the 1790's. Activities of the distillery become clearer in the 1840's and buildings from the 1850's and 60's still survive.

Rosebank Distillery Ltd. was formed in 1894 and in 1914 it was among the companies that amalgamated to form the Scottish Malt Distillers before the group became part of DCL.

Rosebank was once considered one of the premier lowland whiskies but United Distillers closed the distillery in 1993.



www.malts.com

Springbank Distillery is one of the last surviving producers of Campbeltown Single Malts. The distillery, located on the southern Kintyre peninsula, produces three distinct types of single malt Scotch whisky.

Springbank Single Malt is the most popular variety. Its standard bottling is a 10 year old, distilled two and a half times, and is not chill-filtered, nor does it have colour added.

Longrow Single Malt is a highly peaty whisky. The standard Longrow is also a ten year old, matured in ex-bourbon casks, while a Sherrywood 10 year old is also available. There is also an experimental tokaji-cask edition available.

Hazelburn Single Malt, the newest variety, was first distilled in 1997 and since bottled as an 8-year-old. Hazelburn is a triple distilled, non-peated whisky, named for another now-defunct Campbeltown distillery.

www.springbankwhisky.com

Founded in 1817 by Captain Hugh Munro, this was one of Ross-shire's first legal distilleries. Demand was strong; four stills soon met it.

Today, this glorious bright gold 23 year old still made with water taken from the Dairywell spring displays characteristic herbal leafy aromas which lead into a firm, smooth, full bodied, almost leathery malt with a robust, warming finish.

www.malts.com