Scotland: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Duncan Taylor

The Duncan Taylor company, whose head office is settled in the little town Huntly, in Aberdeenshire, not far from Keith, in the heart of Speyside, is one of the oldest to market single malt. Unlike other well known independent bottlers, like Douglas Laing for instance, Duncan Taylor had no long history in the blending industry before turning over (partially) on the single malt market.

From the very beginning in 1931, Duncan Taylor has mainly been active in the single malt business, and as such they may be considered as pioneers. Of course, the practices of the company have evolved during the years. Originally, Duncan Taylor was a whisky broker, and its mission was to facilitate whisky casks exchanges between actors of the industry: distilleries, blenders and independent bottlers. During all this years, Duncan Taylor has build up a unique collection of high quality casks from the best distilleries in Scotland. Their independent bottler activities are more recent, but they take advantage of their collection which contains many treasures, which now arrive on the market.

Marketing of bottles under their own label coincide with the move of the company from Glasgow to Huntly. A rather strict business plan, allying a strong brand image to the quality of the offered products was needed to help the company to find its place between the concurrence on that recent and promising independent bottling market.

The current policy of Duncan Taylor is not to select nice (filled) casks at the distilleries, but to select nice (empty) casks and to bring them to distilleries to fill them up, and to stay in the warehouses of the distilleries during the maturation process.

Distilleries seem to get more and more jealous of the success of independent bottlers, and would prefer marketing themselves products which are currently mainly the domain of the independents (single cask, small batches, cask strength, etc...), and would prefer not to see their name on the labels of independent bottlers anymore. Is this one of the reasons Duncan Taylor also produces blends, or bottles without any reference to the distillery, like "Auld Reekie", an Islay Malt (probably Caol Ila) or the recently marketed "The Big Smoke"?

"Whisky Galore", "Peerless", "Cask Strength Collection", "The Rarest of the Rare" are some of the brands of Duncan Taylor, corresponding to different market segments, and of course different price ranges.

Owning a nearly historic collection of old whisky casks brings Duncan Taylor sometimes in direct concurrence with the angels. Indeed, 30 or 40 years old casks contain sometimes whisky which does not deserve the name "whisky" anymore, as its alcohol percentage has fallen beneath the 40 legal %... instead of offering those (often excellent) casks for blending, Duncan Taylor has launched a special collection, called "Lonach Collection". Duncan Taylor mixes several casks of single malt from the same distillery, in order to get a product which deserves the name "Whisky" again, as it will be bottled at at least 40%, as legally required.

The bottling plant is situated behind the shop. Casks which are ready for bottling are brought back from the distilleries to the mini warehouse where they are bottled on quite a traditional way by the Duncan Taylor workers..

The shop

Bottling plant

Casks ready for bottling

Last update: Tuesday, 12-Aug-2008 15:54:40 CEST
Thu 29 07 2010, 18:07 - 99 visiteurs au cours de la dernière heure et 12 visiteurs sur le site en ce moment.
Copyright:Jean-Marie Putz (2003-2007)

Whisky is an alcoholic drink. Let's prefer quality to quantity as the abuse of alcohol beverages can damage the health. Consuming alcoholic drinks during pregnancy, even in small quantities, can seriously affect the health of the child. Consumption of alcohol impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.