Dufftown Single Malt Whisky : The Whisky Exchange

With a capacity of over 6 million litres per year, Dufftown one of the largest of Diageo's 28 working distilleries. The distillery was founded in 1895/6 by the blender Peter Mackenzie in partnership with Richard Stackpole and John Symon. Symon owned the sawmill and mealmill whose buildings were converted into the distillery. Discover more »

DufftownSingle Malt Whisky

Peter Mackenzie (who also owned Blair Athol) bought out his partners in 1898 and moved to Edinburgh, changing the company's name to P Mackenzie Distillers Ltd.

For a time the company flourished, but after having expended considerable time and effort building a successful market for their blends in the USA, Mackenzie's was to suffer a crippling blow from Prohibition, and Mackenzie's sonw as forced to sell Dufftown in 1933 to the blender Arthur Bell. After a period in mothballs during 1941-47, Dufftown resumed production and has continued to this day. The distillery was expanded twice in the 1970s, taking the total number of stills to six.

In 1985, Bell's was bought by Guinness, which went on to merge with Grand Metropolitan and to create United Distillers (now Diageo). The vast majority of Dufftown's capacity continues to be used in the Bell's blend, although it also contributes to a blend called The Real Mackenzie produced by Diageo for the Asian market. In 2006 a 12 year-old single malt called The Singleton of Dufftown was launched in Europe, replacing the old 15 year-old Flora and Fauna bottling as the only officially-bottled release from the distillery. Independent bottlings are relatively rare.