Glenallachie distillery
The grounds of the Glenallachie distillery | |
Region: Speyside | |
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Location | Aberlour Coordinates: 57°27′19″N 3°13′43″W / 57.45518°N 3.22871°W |
Owner | Pernod Ricard |
Founded | 1967 |
Founder | Mackinlay McPherson |
Architect | W. Delme Evans |
Status | Open |
Water source | Sources on Ben Rinnes |
Number of stills | Two wash, two spirit |
Capacity | 3,200,000 litres of pure alcohol per year |
Glenallachie is a malt whisky distillery in Aberlour founded in 1967. The distillery is owned by Chivas Brothers, itself part of Pernod-Ricard. It mainly produces whisky for blends, and also releases 2 official bottlings at cask strength, one of 16 and one of 18 years old.
History
The Glenallachie distillery was built in 1967 by Mackinlay McPherson.[1] It was bought and mothballed by Invergordon Distillers in 1985.[2] They sold it to Campbell Distillers in 1989, who restarted the distillery, and expanded the capacity with two extra stills, bringing the distillery to a two wash- two spirit still configuration.[1][3]
Building
The building of the Genallachie distillery was designed by S. Lothian Barclay from Lothian, Barclay Jarvis & Boys and Delme Evans[2] It is located at the foot of Ben Rinnes,[1] close to the Lour burn.[4] The grounds has ponds that are fed by the Lour, that provide water for cooling.[4]
Production
The distillery draws its water from sping fed and snow water fed streams on Ben Rinnes. It uses lightly peated malts.[4] The distillery uses a semi-lauter mash tun, and six stainless steel washbacks. It uses two lantern shaped wash stills, and two onion shaped spirit stills for distillation.[3] The distilled spirit is matured in used oak bourbon barrels.[2] Though the malt is mainly used in blends, it produces a 16-year-old cask-strength bottling since 2005,[3] and an 18-year-old bottling since 2008. It is mainly used in the Chivas Brothers Cask Strength Clan Campbell blend,[2] and also in the Legendary and White Heather blended whiskies. The whisky is bottled and sold as a twelve-year-old single malt by Delhaize, and Signatory bottles vintage editions of the whisky.[4]