Aberlour

Introduction:

The Whiskies of the Aberlour distillery are usually all sweet with sherry, not smoky and more fruity than spicy. The most famous Aberlours are the Aberlour 10 y.o., the 18 y.o., the 16 y.o. Double Cask, and the Aberlour a’bunadh batches. Nearly all of the Whiskies are matured or finished in Sherry or Wine casks. Therefore, Aberlour is a Whisky for the sweeter connoisseur that loves to find the differences between the dark, dried and exotic fruitiness you can find in all the Aberlour drams. It is a true Speyside whisky. You will also find Aberlour in a lot of independent bottlings from bottlers like Signatory or Duncan Taylor.

Production:

The Aberlour distillery is an active distillery with two wash stills (21,000 litres) and two spirit stills (15,500 litres). Nowadays they have a yearly output of about 3.5 million litres. This puts them in the middle to upper section of the biggest Whisky distilleries in Scotland. In 2019 plans are known that Chivas Brothers wants to expand and rebuild the distillery larger. In mid-2020, they received the permits for a new Still House, a Tun Room, and a Mash Room.

The water used for the Whisky production comes from the “Burn of Aberlour”. This is a river flowing right past the distillery. The water is also used as process water for cooling the alcoholic fumes.

The Pot Stills:

The Aberlour distillery uses a total of four pot stills in a double distillation process to produce its new make spirit. With the pear shape, the pot and the conical neck have the classic design. With no constriction or reflux bowls in the neck and the lyne arm facing downwards, you would expect a very strong and intense distillery character. So this leads to how fast Aberlour distills its spirits. The sweet and calm character of the usual Aberlour suggests that the Aberlour distillery uses a slow distillation process.

The Malting:

The malting on the traditional malting floors was done until 1962. Today Aberlour purchases its mostly unpeated malt from the big malting plants in Scotland.

The Warehouse:

The most visited warehouse is Warehouse Number 1 where you can have a tasting at the end of the tour through the distillery. The cask selection at the Aberlour distillery is a very careful mix between Bourbon barrels and a big amount of Sherry casks.

History:

In 1879, the distillery was built near the Lour stream by James Fleming. Back then, the Aberlour distillery was the most modern distillery of its time.

In 1898, there was a very unfortunate and big fire that destroyed most of the buildings and also most of the Whisky in stock in the warehouses. But Aberlour managed to get through this crisis and rebuilt the distillery shortly afterward. This was a great chance for Aberlour because they rebuilt the distillery with the most modern equipment.

In 1973, the Distillery increased production by expanding to four pot stills. S. Campbell & Sons Ltd bought the distillery in 1945 and were bought themselves by Pernod Ricard in 1975.

The Visitor Centre:

You can book two kinds of tours at the distillery: “The Aberlour Experience” and “The Founders’ Tour”. The first is the normal tour with a tasting at the end, and the second is the premium tour in which you get to know everything about

Visitor information:

Aberlour Distillery
Aberlour
Banffshire
AB3 9PJ
Tel: +44 (0)1340-881249