Speyburn Distillery

The Spey­burn (Glen­livet) Dis­tillery was founded in 1897 by John Hop­kins & Com­pany for the sum of £17,000. The site was cho­sen by John Hop­kins him­self for its unpol­luted water sup­ply from the Granty Burn, one of the major trib­u­taries to the famous Spey River. Hop­kins appointed the famous dis­tillery archi­tect Charles C Doig to design the dis­tillery and to this day Spey­burn has its clas­sic pagoda ven­ti­la­tor, a hall­mark of Doig’s design.

The pro­pri­etors, keen to have pro­duc­tion started to ensure that the first fill­ings could bear the date 1897 — Queen Victoria’s Dia­mond Jubilee — had sched­uled pro­duc­tion to begin on 1^st Novem­ber 1897; how­ever due to delays, the stills did not run until 15^th Decem­ber. When pro­duc­tion finally began, the still house was with­out doors and win­dows. Under the watch­ful eye of the distillery’s man­ager, John Smith, the first spirit was run off in a vio­lent snow storm with the dis­tillery men work­ing in over­coats and muf­flers to pro­tect them from the ele­ments. How­ever, the pro­pri­etors suc­ceeded in achiev­ing their ambi­tion and one butt was pro­duced and bonded bear­ing the date 1897.

Spey­burn is cur­rently the num­ber 9 best sell­ing sin­gle malt whisky in the USA.

The dis­tillery is cur­rently owned by Inver House Dis­tillers Limited