Benriach

The History

The Ben Riach distillery was built in 1897 by John Duff & Co. Ltd. Just one year later, the distillery started operating. John Duff was also the owner of the neighboring Longmorn distillery. He united in 1899 both distilleries under the name Longmorn Distillery Co. Ltd.

Shortly before the turn of the century John Duff had to pledge his shares to the bank. The bankruptcy of key whiskey wholesaler Pattison & Elder Co. forced him financially to take this step. Around 1900, the operation of Ben Riach was largely discontinued, only the malting remained active and produced the malt for the heavy distillery Longmorn.

It was only in 1965 that BenRiach was acquired by Glenlivet Distillery Ltd. bought and after a complete renovation permanently put into operation again. In 1978, the distillery went to Seagrams, which in 2001 were bought by Pernod Ricard. During this time, only three months could be produced per year, before the complete shutdown in 2002 followed.

In April 2004, the distillery was bought by the newly formed company The BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd and put back into operation.

The production

In 1985, the capacity of the BenRiach Distillery was increased from two to four stills during renovation and expansion works. The required malt has been bought since 1998 by large malting plants, as the operation of the in-house malting plant was stopped after more than 100 years. Only for certain bottlings, they are still used since 2012 temporarily. The malt is ground to grist in a newer malt mill.

For a short time, 1998 was untypically fired three times. The result can be experienced since the batch 11.

The Storage

The Malts of BenRiach are stored mainly in ex-Bourbon barrels, in the low-warehouses with natural soils, on the distillery grounds. The finnishings also use port, sherry, Madeira and other barrels.

Chivas Brothers buys more than half of BenRiach's annual Malts.