Glen Spey Distillery

One of four distilleries operating in the town of Rothes, Glen Spey is one of the lesser known Speyside distilleries. First founded in 1878 by grain merchant James Stuart, for almost the first ten years of its life the distillery operated under the name Mill of Rothes. Situated below the ruins of Castle Rothes, the original complex was first built as a mill and only later converted to whisky distilling.

Stuart bought Macallan distillery in 1886 after holding the licence to operate it for nearly 20 years by that point. As his focus shifted Glen Spey was bought by W. & A. Gilbey in 1887, who officially gave it the name still used today. This was the first time that a Scottish distillery has been bought by an English company.

Glen Spey was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1920. But the rebuilding process allowed for a new layout of the distillery which was more advantageous than the converted mill.

In 1962 W. & A. Gilbey merged with United Wine Traders to form International Distillers and Vintners. This is one of the many entities that would go on to become part of Diageo after first getting acquired by Grand Metropolitan in 1972. The distillery expanded production under IDV with the number of stills doubling from two to four in 1970, shortly before their takeover.

Glen Spey is equipped with 4.4 ton mash tun, eight stainless steel washbacks, and four stills.The purifiers installed on the spirit stills help create a lighter spirit by removing impurities. This makes for a complex whisky character when taken alongside the nuttiness from the cloudy wort. The distillery has a production capacity of 1.4 million litres a year, with the bulk of that meant for use in blends.

The only common distillery bottling from Glen Spey currently available is the 12 year old single malt in the Flora & Fauna range which first released in 2001. This is fresh on the nose, with aromas of light fruits and fresh grass. The palate starts with more fruit and sweetness which shifts towards notes of nuts and malt before a dry finish with a hint of smoke.

A 21 year old in the Special Releases range which came out in 2010 is one of the only other bottlings to come out of Glen Spey. Unlike at many distilleries which don’t release many single malts themselves, independent bottlings of Glen Spey are also hard to come by.