Glentauchers

GlentauchersSingle Malt Scotch Whisky

The new distillery began production in 1898, the year of the disastrous Pattison crash. Lowrie was badly affected in the ensuing industry meltdown and by 1906, when Lowrie retired, Buchanan owned 80% of Lowrie & Co. as well as 100% of Glentauchers. The ensuing story of consolidation, merger and acquisition has led to the creation of the world's biggest drinks company: Diageo.

After merging with John Dewar in 1915 and buying the title of Lord Woolavington of Lavington in 1922 (the story is that Buchanan paid with a postdated cheque for £50,000, signed as Woolavington so that the payment would bounce if he didn't get his title), John Buchanan merged with the Distiller's Company Ltd (DCL, who already owned Johnnie Walker) in1925 at the age of 76.

Glentauchers passed to the DCL subsidiary Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) in 1930, and bythe time of Buchanan's death in 1935 SMD owned over 50 distileries and accounted for more than half of Scotland's malt whisky production. Glentauchers passed many uneventful years under SMD's ownership, with the only events of note being a rebuild in 1965 when the stills were increased to six, and 1969 when the floor maltings stopped.

In 1985, after SMD and DCL had come under the control of United Distillers, Glentauchers was mothballed. The distillery was sold in 1989 to Alllied, who resumed distilling the following year. After the joint takeover of Allied in 2005, Glentauchers became a part of Pernod Ricard.

The vast majority of Glentaucher's malt goes into blends, mostly Ballantine's and Teacher's. Less than 1% is kept back for releaseas a single malt. An official bottling of 12 year-old was available from the 1980s, but was replaced by a 15yo in 2000 while the distillery still belonged to Allied. There have been occasional independent bottlings from Gordon & MacPhail and Douglas Laing.