Aultmore Distillery
Keith
Banffshire AB55 3QY
+44 1542 882 762
Owner: Bacardi
Creation year: 1985
The distillery has been build in 1895 by Alexander Edward, son of David Edward, who owned Benrinnes, south of Aberlour. Alexander Edward was an important character in the whisky industry, and he built Craigellachie together with Peter J. Mackie (Restless Peter) in 1898.
The first spirit ran out of the stills in 1897 and less than one year later, the annual production has grown up to 450.000 litres a year.
In the same year 1898, Alexander Edward acquired the Oban distillery, creating the "Oban and Aultmore-Glenliver Distilleries Ltd".
The year 1899 was the beginning of a whisky crisis and the bankruptcy of the "House Pattirsons Ltd", an important blender from Leith obliged both distilleries to close for a few years. Other blenders bankruptcies followed .A short improvement of the market in 1903/1904 encouraged the distillery to reopen for a while, and just like most of the distilleries, Aultmore closed again during WW1, due to a lack at barley.
The prohibition in the United states has been fatal to the distillery, and Oban and Aultmore have been both sold to John Dewar and sons in 1923. In 1925, Dewar worked together with DCL, and as a consequence Aultmore became part of the UDV group.
The distillery closed again during WW2 between 1943 and 1945 because of a new lack at barley. Great renovation works took place en 1970 and 1971, forcing the distillery to close temporarily/
A fusion obliged UDV to sell the distillery in 1998.
A great part of the production is used in the blends VAT69, Dewar’s White Label, and Johnnie Walker Black Label.
