Glentauchers Distillery

Glentauchers distillery was built in 1897 by blender James Buchanan and whisky trader W. P. Lowrie, meant to supply spirits for Buchanan’s blends. It started production next year, which was the same year the Pattison crash wiped out the whisky industry.

Lowrie found himself in financial trouble within a few years of Glentauchers’ opening, and in 1906 James Buchanan became the sole owner of the distillery. Around the turn of the century Glentauchers also experimented with continuous distillation to make malt whisky. This was abandoned in favour of the traditional copper pot stills before long.

Like many distilleries built in the late 19th century, the railroad was a major consideration when choosing a location. The Great North of Scotland Railway passed close by where Glentauchers stands outside of Keith, and the distillery even had its own rail platform. This was a crucial element in moving whisky out of Speyside.

James Buchanan & Co merged with Dewars in 1915, and the 1920s saw the distillery undergo significant refurbishments. Among the work done at this time was the rebuilding of the mashing house and maltings.

In 1925 Glentauchers was bought by Distillers Company Limited. DCL bought a lot of distilleries in the 1910-30s, and many of those went to become part of the Diageo stable. But Glentauchers was not among them.

Under DCL’s subsidiary Scottish Malt Distillers, Glentauchers ran smoothly for six decades. During this time SMD invested in a serious expansion of production. The number of stills running tripled from two to six in 1965.

However the market slumped in the 80s and DCL mothballed the distillery in 1985. Caledonian Malt Distillers, a subsidiary of Allied Distillers, snapped it up in 1989 and production resumed four years later.

The current owner of Glentauchers is Chivas Brothers. They gained control of the distillery when their parent company Pernod Ricard bought Allied Domecq and its holdings in 2005.

Despite being relatively unknown to single malt fans, Glentauchers is a distillery of significant size, capable of producing 4.2 million litres a year. It is equipped with a 12.2 ton mash tun, six washbacks of Oregon Pine, and six pot stills. Water for whisky production is taken from Rosarie Burn before it reaches the River Spey.

After so long with just the odd independent bottling available, whisky lovers were finally officially introduced to Glentauchers in 2017. That was when Chivas Brothers decided to give some profile to three of its lesser known distilleries. Glentauchers, Glenburgie, and Miltonduff all got a single malt release under the Ballantines brand, which had previously stuck to blends.

The offering from Glentauchers is a 15 year old with lots of fruit and heather on the nose. More sweetness and fruit follows on the palate with notes of berries and barley sugar, ending in a long finish.