Glen Keith

Glen Keith is a single malt distillery in Keith, Speyside. The distillery fell on hard times and closed in the late 1990s. Now, it has risen from ashes and is beginning to make a name for itself with a boutique range of single malts.

Glen Keith is often described as a classic Speyside style that is light and fruity. When tasting, delicate notes of green fruit (especially apple and pear), toffee, honey and vanilla can be detected. Hints of tropical fruits are evident in older expressions. 

Until the 1980s, the distillery also produced a small quantity of peated single malt each year. This was named Glenisla. The bottlings are now rare and reserved to independent bottlers, such as Gordon & Macphail and Signatory Vintage.

There is only one core bottling, the Glen Keith Distillery Edition launched in 2017. Three limited-edition whiskies from Glen Keith at 21, 25 and 28 years old also form part of Chivas' wider The Secret Speyside Collection. There is also a special 22-year-old Cask Strength, which is part of the Distillery Reserve Collection and only available at Chivas visitor centres in Scotland.

Glen Keith is a large distillery with an annual capacity of six million litres. It is equipped with an eight-tonne mash tun which runs 40 mashes per week. There are 15 washbacks - nine are made of Oregon pine, and six are stainless steel. The fermentation time is 55 hours. The distillery has six stills that work in three pairs. Water for production and cooling is from Crossburn and Newmill Springs.

Glen Keith's vibrant style matures well in bourbon casks sourced from the American whiskey industry. Some older whiskies are also maturing in European oak sherry barrels.

All spirit produced since Glen Keith reopened in 2013 has been unpeated.

Glen Keith was founded in 1957 by Chivas Brothers, part of Seagram Distillers group. It was built to cope with a large upturn in sales of their blended whiskies. The distillery began to supply single malt for Scotch whisky blends such as Chivas Regal, Passport and 100 Pipers. A former mill in the town of Keith, very close to their Strathisla distillery, was chosen.

Apart from producing malt for blenders, Glen Keith was established as an innovation centre early on. Different distillates and spirits, included peated spirit and triple distillation trials, were developed. They also conducted experiments using other grain types to replace barley.

In 1999 Glen Keith was mothballed. The same fate befell other Chivas distilleries in Speyside - Allt-a-Bhainne, Braeval and Imperial. Imperial would never reopen but of those that did, Glen Keith was the last. It remained closed until 2013 when the distillery was revived under new owners Pernod Ricard, who had purchased Seagrams and Chivas Brothers. Throughout its closure, the ownership had used the facility as a blending and product development lab and this remains today.