Teaninich

TeaninichSingle Malt Scotch Whisky

Built in 1817, Teaninich has been owned by Distiller's Company Ltd (DCL, later to become part of Diageo) since the 1930s. Teaninich was expanded in 1970 with the addition of a building housing six new stills, referred to thereafter as the 'A side'. The original four stills then became known as the 'B side', which continued to run until 1984, when it was mothballed.

In 1985 the A side was also mothballed, but recommenced production in 1991 after a gap of six years. The B side comprising four original stills and the 19th century distillery buildings never resumed production and was dismantled and demolished in 1999.

Teaninich is unique (don't say that after a few drams) in that instead of a mash tun, it uses a filter press (normally used in beer brewing)to extract the sugars from the malt. This process uses a different kind of mill, as it is important there are no husks in the ground malt, and it is more efficient than the mash tun system, permitting faster extraction of the sugars. The distillery has a large output of four million litres/year.

The only official bottling of Teaninich is the standard-issue Flora & Fauna 10 year old. Independent bottlings are rare but not unknown. Michael Jackson describes the house style as 'Robust, toffeeish, spicy, leafy. Restorative or after dinner.'