Benriach Distillery

The Ben­Ri­ach dis­tillery is a sin­gle malt Scotch whisky dis­tillery in the Spey­side area of Scot­land. It is oper­ated inde­pen­dently by the Ben­Ri­ach Dis­tillery Com­pany Lim­ited, formed by two South African whisky enthu­si­asts Geoff Bell and Wayne Keiswet­ter and Scotch whisky expert Billy Walker. In 2008 the com­pany expanded their port­fo­lio with the acqui­si­tion of the Glen­dronach distillery.

The Ben­Ri­ach Dis­tillery was estab­lished by the Grant fam­ily in 1892 next to the Long­morn Dis­tillery. Soon after the dis­tillery was moth­balled in 1900 due to the col­lapse of a major Scotch Whisky pur­chaser, forc­ing many Scotch whisky dis­til­leries to close. The Ben­Ri­ach remained closed until 1965 when it was reopened by Glen­livet Dis­tillers Ltd. In 1978 the dis­tillery changed hands, this time to Sea­grams. Sea­grams became part of Pernod Ricard in 2001 and the Ben­Ri­ach dis­tillery began oper­at­ing for just three months of every year. In 2004 the dis­tillery was acquired by an inde­pen­dent con­sor­tium, the Ben­Ri­ach Dis­tillery Com­pany Lim­ited, com­mit­ted to shar­ing the lit­tle known but high qual­ity sin­gle malts with a wider audience.

The dis­tillery sources its water from the Burn­side Springs located under­ground, deep below the dis­tillery, and has the capac­ity to pro­duce over 2 mil­lion litres of pure alco­hol per annum.

Approx­i­mately 10% of new pro­duc­tion is peated / 90% unpeated.

The dis­tillery is man­aged by Alan McConnochie, who has worked at Tober­mory, Laphroaig, Bun­na­hab­hain and Ben Nevis malt whisky dis­til­leries, and also at the Ply­mouth Gin distillery.

Awards

Dis­tillery of the Year, Malt Advo­cate Whisky Awards 2007
Best Rare Spey­side (Ben­Ri­ach Authen­it­cus 21 Year Old), World Whisky Awards, Whisky Mag­a­zine 2007