Macduff Distillery

The Macduff distillery doesn’t bottle any of its whisky under its own name. There are a number of official single malt bottlings, but those are sold as the brand The Deveron. The distillery was founded in 1960 by a group of businessmen from Glasgow. The original group consisted of Marty Dyke, George Crawford, James Stirrat, and Brodie Hepburn, operating under the name Macduff Distillers Ltd. Built on the banks of the River Deveron which gives their whisky its name today, the distillery sits in the Highlands town of Banff in Aberdeenshire.

Production expanded quickly, and within four years of opening another still was added to the original pair. The addition of yet another in 1967 brought the total up to four. Then, in 1972, Macduff was bought by William Lawson Distillers, the whisky subsidiary of Martini & Rossi. They remained the owners until Martini & Rossi was bought by Bacardi in 1993. They would end up transferring control of Macduff to John Dewar & Sons, another company in the Bacardi stable, and one with extensive experience in the whisky business.

Today The distillery is equipped with a 6.75 ton mash tun and nine stainless steel washbacks. Macduff runs five stills, two wash and three spirit. The stills all have unusually angled lyne arms. The arms all have a right angled kink which helps fit them all into the cramped still house. One of the wash stills even has a completely u-shaped arm. With water drawn from nearby natural springs and burns, Macduff has an annual production capacity of 3.4 million litres a year.

The reasonably short fermentation time, which averages 55 hours, gives the spirit a nutty character. But the upwards angle on the lyne arms on the still create less reflux, adding fruity notes to the spirit.

There are two main distillery bottlings which are widely available now. These are The Deveron 12 year old and 18 year old. The 12 year old is a rich whisky, full of orchard fruit, butterscotch along with sweet malt and spices. A 10 year old is also available, and a number of independent bottling companies have also released their own editions of MacDuff.