Glenlossie

Glenlossie is a single malt distillery located in the Speyside region of Scotland. Sitting to the south of the town of Elgin, the distillery is known for supplying spirit to a vast array of blended Scotch whiskies. It is an important component in Haig and is widely used across Diageo's portfolio of over 50 brands. Official releases of Glenlossie single malts are few and far between with most appearing via independent bottlers.

Glenlossie produces a light and delicate yet slightly oily single malt. This exhibits subtle green orchard fruit, freshly cut grass, cereal and floral notes. Gentle wood spices and honey-like characteristics develop with time in the cask. The spirits are predominantly matured in ex-bourbon casks sourced from the American whiskey industry, with a small percentage also matured in ex-sherry casks from Spain.

There is only one regular bottling from Diageo - the Glenlossie 10-year-old. This forms part of the Flora & Fauna collection, a range of whiskies that showcase some of the company's lesser-known distilleries. The only alternative is through independent bottlers with recent releases coming from Carn Mor, Signatory Vintage and That Boutique-y Whisky Co.

The annual production capacity of Glenlossie is 3.7 million litres of alcohol, although recently it has been operating at just two million per year. There is an eight tonne mash tun and they run 12 mashes per week. This feeds 10 washbacks - eight are wooden and made of larch, while the other two are stainless steel. The fermentation time is 75 hours. There are six large copper pot stills - three wash stills and three spirit sills. Water for production is drawn from the nearby Bardon Burn. Glenlossie also has a large complex of 14 warehouses on the site. These are home to over 250,000 maturing casks of whisky.

Glenlossie was founded in 1876 by John Duff. He moved from his position as manager at Glendronach in Aberdeenshire to build his own distillery close to Elgin. His tenure would last 20 years before he went to build the Longmorn distillery nearby. Duff left the ownership and management to one of his business associates, H. Mackay.

Following World War I, the distillery became part of Distillers Company Ltd. (DCL). They operated Glenlossie for just over a decade before transferring ownership to Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) in 1930. This began the distillery's long association with the Haig blend after SMD started using it within the recipe.

In 1971, SMD commissioned a second single malt distillery on the site - Mannochmore. This was constructed due to the increased popularity of blended whiskies in general and Haig in particular. At the same time, they built a dark grains plant to recycle waste products in an environmentally friendly way. This was ahead of its time and today processes materials such as draff and pot ale from all of Diageo's local distilleries.

United Distillers became the owners in 1986. It was they who first released an official single malt bottling of Glenlossie in 1990. It was the 10 years old Flora & Fauna, which remains in that range today. Diageo has been the owner since the company was formed in 1997.