Glen Moray Distillery

Whisky is sometimes described as ‘beer grown up’, and Glen Moray perfectly proves this theory. Originally established as a brewery by Robert Thorne & Sons in 1828, the operation was founded on the outskirts of Speyside town, Elgin, and used the nearby River Lossie as its water source.

Then, in the late 1890s, when a whisky boom was taking hold after the phylloxera blight devastated French grapes, the brewery was converted into a distillery. The first spirit trickled off the distillery’s pair of stills on September 13, 1897. Notably, the distillery used an extremely diverse variety of barrels, including Marsala wine casks, an unusual practice at the time.

As with other distilleries that popped up at the end of the 19th century, Glen Moray suffered when whisky boom turned to boozy bust – closing in 1910. Thorne and Sons preferred to focus their attention on Aberlour Distillery, which had recently undergone an expensive rebuild following a devastating fire.

The distillery was picked up by the owners of Glenmorangie, Macdonald & Muir, around 1920. After a few decades of quiet operation, the owners set about expanding and modernising the distillery in the 1950s.

First, they secured the distillery’s supply of barley, by purchasing the nearby Gallowcrook Farm, which had provided the grain for Glen Moray’s first-ever whisky. Then, two new stills were added, doubling capacity, and a new stillhouse was constructed to house them. A Saladin box (which is not somewhere to keep a healthy lunch, but a machine for malting barley) was also installed.

The distillery soon became one of the most advanced in Scotland, switching out coal for oil power, and adding warehouses to hold all the new whisky being produced. By the late 1980s, Glen Moray was running seven days a week, and distilling more than two million litres of spirit a year. For context, Lark (one of Australia’s most established distilleries) produces around 500,000 litres a year.

On the eve of the new millennium, Glen Moray introduced two innovative wine cask-finished whiskies – a Chardonnay and a Chenin Blanc, becoming the only Scotch whisky distillery to use Chenin Blanc casks. Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy purchased the Glenmorangie company and Glen Moray in 2004.

Nevertheless, the distillery did not take its place at the forefront of Scottish distilling until it was purchased by French Spirits company La Martiniquaise in 2008. The new owners recognised the distillery’s potential, increasing production by a further 40% with the installation of more washbacks and another pair of stills. As well as using it to provide spirit for the famous Cutty Sark and Label 5 blends, they released a new standard range, the Classic Collection, in 2014. A peated whisky followed in 2015.

A year later, the distillery prepared for its 120th anniversary by launching the Heritage Collection of age-statement single malts. Each whisky in this series ‘reflects our generations of skill in maturing and marrying casks,’ Glen Moray stated, with the most mature whisky clocking in at a venerable 21 years.

Finally, in 2018, the distillery innovated again with its exciting and unusual Curiosity Collection. This range contains remarkably rare offerings aged in fascinating casks – including the 2006 vintage Rhum Agricole Cask Finish and Chenin Blanc Cask that The Whisky Club secured for Members.