Cragganmore Distillery
Ballindalloch
Banffshire AB37 9AB
+44 1807 500 202
Owner: Diageo
Creation date: 1869
The Cragganmore distillery was founded by John Smith in 1869. Smith chose the place for the quality of the water of the Craggan burn, but also because it was closed to the Strathspey railway. John Smith really liked trains and used to travel by rail. However is was often forced to travel in goods wagons, because of his weight of about 144 kg. The cabins in the voyagers wagon were merely to narrow for him.
John Smith was a very experienced distiller, as he has been manager of the Macallan, Glenlivet, Glenfarclas et Wishaw distilleries. When he died, his brother George Smith (owner of the Parkmore distillery) managed temporarily the distillery, until John's son, Gordon Smith could take it over.
When Gordon took the distillery over, business was very good until the whisky crisis in 1989. Despite those difficult times, Gordon did not hesitate to make important renovation works. All the new available technologies were applied to the distillery.
Gordon died in 1912 and his widow, Mary Jane took the business over until 1923, when the distillery was acquired by White Horse Distillers, just one year before the death of White Horse's father, Sir Peter Mackie.
White Horse Distillers was taken over by D.C.L (Distillers Company Ltd.) in 1965, and Cragganmore doubled its production capacity the same year.
Available from independent distillers for a very long time, Cragganmore became popular when it became one of the six "Classic Malts", series launched on the market in 1988 by UDV, and about 30% of the production is sold as single malt, the remaining part being used in blends like McCallum's Perfection and White Horse.
