Glen Elgin Distillery

Founded in 1898 by banker James Carle and experienced distillery manager William Simpson, Glen Elgin had the misfortune to come on the whisky scene just as a bubble was collapsing. The distillery was built at Longmorn, and designed by the renowned distillery architect Charles Doig who actually hailed from its namesake town of Elgin.

Production didn’t start until 1900 while the bottom dropped out of the whisky market. As a consequence the distillery was mothballed after just five months in operation and sold at auction the following year. The new Glen-Elgin-Glenlivet Distillery Co. had no better fortune and it closed again once again.

After five years out of action the distillery was bought by wine-maker J. J. Blanche for £7,000 and production restarted in 1906. He ran the distillery for over 20 years until his death in 1929. In a perfect example of how complex the corporate side of whisky production could get, Glen Elgin was bought by Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930. They were a subsidiary of Distillers Company Limited, and operated many distilleries for DCL. However the licence to run Glen Elgin was given to White Horse Distillers. DCL would go on to become part of the liquor giant Diageo which owns Glen Elgin today.

Significant modernisation was undertaken by the new owners. 1950 the distillery was hooked up to the national electric grid for the first time after relying on a turbine driven by the Glen Burn prior to this. Then, in 1964, the number of stills in operation was tripled from two to six.

The distillery is equipped with an 8.4 ton mash tun and nine larch washbacks. Its six stills have a relatively low capacity, 8,000 litres for the spirit stills and 6,500 litres for the wash stills. Altogether Glen Elgin has a production capacity of 2.7 million litres of spirits a year.

There is no “core range” at Glen Elgin, with only one main official bottling. The 12 year old, which is described by the distillery as a ‘fruitcake in a bottle’ is full of rich flavours right from the first whiff. The nose is both sweet and spice, full of fruit and sherry. The palate is malty and sweet, followed by a dry finish. An 18 year old Cask Strength single malt was released in 2018 as part of Diageo’s Special Releases range. This unusual expression was vatted from two batches made with different yeasts and matured separately in ex-bodega casks and refill European Oak butts.