Dalwhinnie

Dalwhinnie is a single malt distillery located in the Cairngorm National Park in the Scottish Highlands. It is owned by Diageo and is the second-highest distillery in Scotland at 462 metres above sea level. The Speyside distillery of Braeval, also in the Cairngorms, just pips it to first place by a few metres. A delicious and highly respected Scotch whisky.

Dalwhinnie is known for its fresh, gentle and elegant style of single malt. Prominent characteristics include green apple and orchard fruits with honeyed and malty notes. The whisky produced at Dalwhinnie is predominantly matured in ex-bourbon casks made from American oak. This can be seen in the majority of the bottlings - the no age statement Winter's Gold, the classic 15 years old and the distillery exclusive Lizzie's Dram. The Distiller's Edition is the only core release that features any significant influence from ex-Oloroso sherry casks.

Dalwhinnie has an annual production capacity of 2.2 million litres. As part of the Diageo group, the malted barley is produced at the huge malting facility at its fellow Highland distillery of Glen Ord. There is a 7.3 tonne mash tun, which currently runs 10 mashes per week. This feeds six wooden washbacks. Unusually, Dalwhinnie has two fermentation times - 60 hours during the week and 110 hours over the weekend.

There is a single pair of stills and these are connected to wooden worm tub condensers. The distillery is one of just a handful of places in Scotland to have these traditional pieces of equipment. A worm tub condenser is a large tank filled with cold water. The condensation pipe runs down through this in a coil and looks like a worm, hence the name. The cold water converts the alcohol vapour to a liquid.

The Highland distillery of Dalwhinnie was founded in 1897 by John Grant, Alexander Mackenzie and George Sellar. It is located in the village of Dalwhinnie in the centre of the Scottish Highlands. The village was founded at a strategic point on the high Drumochter Summit just over 30 years earlier in 1863.

The distillery was originally named Strathspey. It became Dalwhinnie a year later when the founders hit financial problems and had to sell. The new owners named the distillery after the village. The remote location contributed to the production and further financial issues in Dalwhinnie's early years. This stabilised once the ownership passed to Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930. The current owners are Diageo.

The distillery has suffered two periods of long closure. These were due to a catastrophic fire (1934-1938) and a major refurbishment (1992-1995). Dalwhinnie may be remote but it is one of Diageo's most visited distilleries. Its location next to the A9 road is key. This is the main route that links Perth and Stirling in the south to Inverness and the far north of the Highlands.

Dalwhinnie 15 years old was one of the six original Classic Malts of Scotland when launched in 1988, and remains so today. It is Diageo's sixth best selling single malt with one million bottles sold each year. Dalwhinnie is also a major component in two of Diageo's most popular blended whiskies - Buchanans and Black & White. Both are hugely popular in Central and South America, making Dalwhinnie highly strategic for the owners.