Longmorn Distillery

The deeply fruity and sweet whisky from Longmorn has only been available as a single malt since 1993 despite being in existence for a century longer than that. It was built near the city of Elgin in the Speyside region in 1893 by dedicated entrepreneur John Duff.

Four years after the distillery’s foundation Duff bought out his partners and founded Benriach distillery next door. This would prove to be a premature move as the whisky market collapsed in the Pattison crash, forcing Duff to declare bankruptcy. John Grant took over in 1899, and the following year the company was renamed The Glenlivet Distillers after a merger with Hill Thompson & Co.

During the 1970s the distillery was modernised and expanded. Two new stills were added in 1972 at the same time the spirit still were converted to steam heating. The wash stills were not converted to steam heating for more than 20 years after this. A further two stills were added in 1974, bringing the total at the distillery up to eight.

Seagrams took over Longmorn in 1978 through their subsidiary Chivas Brothers. Pernod Rocard are the current owners, coming into possession of Chivas Brothers when they and Diageo divided up Seagrams in 2001.

After an upgrade in 2012 Longmorn is equipped with an 8.5 ton mash tun, 10 stainless steel washbacks, and eight onion shaped stills. That upgrade also brought the distillery’s production capacity up to 4.5 million litres of spirits a year.

The core bottlings from Longmorn are a 16 year old, replacing a similar edition in 2016, a 23 year old which came out the same year, and the Distiller’s Choice. The 16 year old has a very fruity nose, with apples, pears, and citrus along with oak notes. It stays fresh on the palate, with added spice joining the citrus zest and oak before a long dry finish. The Distiller’s Choice, released without an age statement, has a richer sweetness to it, with toffee, barley sugar, chocolate, and malt flavours to it.

In 2019 three bottlings from Longmorn were released as part of the Secret Speyside Collection from Chivas Brothers. This collection was meant to highlight some of their lesser known distilleries. From Longmorn it includes an 18 year old, 23 year old, and a Cask Strength 25 year old. Independent bottlings are also common from Gordon & MacPhail, Old Particular, and others.