Glentauchers

Glentauchers (pronounced glen-tock-urs) is a little-known single malt distillery in the Speyside region of Scotland. It rose to prominence for supplying high-quality spirits for popular blended Scotch whiskies. These included huge names such as Ballantine's, Black & White, Buchanan's and Teacher's. This remains its primary role today with few single malt bottlings available and all but the staunchest whisky fans having tasted it.

Glentauchers produces a delicate, fruity and floral single malt. This is a classic Speyside style. Within the limited whiskies that are available notes of vanilla custard, apple patisserie and heather honey are evident. These are joined by hints of toffee, almond and milk chocolate. 

There are just two small-batch core products, a 15 y.o. and a 23 y.o. They are both parts of the Ballantine's Single Malt Series. This series highlights lesser-known distilleries that play a key role in supplying whisky for the award-winning blend. There are also three limited editions as part of the Chivas Brothers Distillery Reserve Collection. All are cask strength, with two 13-year-olds and another 21-year-old expression. These bottles are only available via Chivas distillery visitor centres.

Independent bottling company Gordon & Macphail are the main and most consistent source of single malts from the distillery. Glentauchers first appeared from them in the 1990s and numerous vintages have been annually released ever since.

Glentauchers has an annual capacity of 4.2 million litres. The distillery has a 12.2 tonne mash tun with a current output of 18 mashes per week. There are six Oregon pine wooden washbacks with a fermentation time of 60 hours in operation. There are six stills (3x wash and 3x spirit stills) and these work in pairs. Water for production and cooling is taken from the nearby Rosarie Burn. The majority of new make spirit is matured in bourbon whiskey barrels, although sherry casks are occasionally used.

Glentauchers is also on schedule to become Pernod Ricard's first carbon neutral distillery by the end of 2022. This will be achieved using biofuel generated at a new plant on site.

Glentauchers was founded in 1897 by James Buchanan & Co. to supply malt for their Buchanan's and Black & White blends. It was located between the hamlets of Mulben and Tauchers, near to the Speyside town of Keith. The exact location was chosen due to a consistent water supply and proximity to the Aberdeen to Inverness railway line. The distillery has its own siding, which was last used in the 1960s.

The buildings were designed by John Alcock in association with renowned Victorian distillery architect Charles Doig. Production began in 1898. John Buchanan & Co. merged with Dewar's to create a larger company in 1915. This lead to increased popularity in Glentauchers' malt and resulted in a major rebuild in the 1920s. The decade also saw Buchanan-Dewar's join Distillers Company Limited (DCL). In 1930, ownership of the distillery was transferred to Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD).

The distillery was closed between 1985 and 1992. When it reopened, Glentauchers was under the new ownership of Allied Distillers. This later became Allied Domecq. Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky arm of Pernod Ricard, acquired Allied Domecq in 2005 and have been the distillery's owners ever since.