Glentauchers Distillery
Mulben, Keith
Banffshire AB55 2BL
+44 1542 860 272
Owner: Pernod-Ricard
Creation year: 1898
The construction of the distillery began in 1897 and one year later, the first spirit came out of the stills. A hydraulic turbine was installed instead of the traditional steam engine to run the distillery.
The distillery has been created by W.P. Lowrie, a blender of Glasgow and James Buchanan.
James Buchanan marketed his own first blends with Lowrie's stocks and financial help under the name of "Buchanan Blend". He changed the name of his blends in "House of Commons" later. His blended whisky was marketed in a black bottle with a white label, and people nicknamed this bottle "Black & White". James had the good idea to add 2 fox terries on his label (a black and a white one).
He was really successful with his blends, so he could pay his debts in no time, and he became one of the three most important characters in the whisky world, together with Dewar and Walkers.
When Lowrie retired, he sold his shares to Buchanan.
From 1910, some experiments took place in the distillery, in order to produce malt whisky in a continuous process .
The Buchanan and Dewar groups merged in 1910 and 01 years later, the group became part of DCL which would become UDV in 1987.
Important refurbishment works took place between 1923 and 1925. Electricity was installed in 1958, after the turbine was replaced by a steam engine in 1955.
The malting floors were suppressed in 1963, while the stills were altered to work on steam in place of being warmed up by coal.
Four new stills were installed in 1965 and 1966.
Glentauchers was closed during World War II from 1939 until 1946, just like most of the distilleries in Scotland, and a second time between 1985 and 1989.
The closing in 1985 was decided by UDV, while the reopening in 1989 was the consequence of the purchase of the distillery by Allied Distillers.
Glentauchers is part of the blends Black & White and Ballantine's.
Nearly 100% of the production is used for blending purposes.
