Lowland single malts

Scotland's whisky-producing regions

Lowland single malts are single malt whiskies distilled in Scotland's lowlands.

The region now only has four currently producing whisky distilleries: Ailsa Bay,[1] in Girvan owned by William Grant & Sons, Glenkinchie distillery, near Edinburgh; Auchentoshan, near Clydebank; and Bladnoch in Galloway.

Two new distilleries (Daftmill[2] in Fife and Annandale[3] in Dumfries and Galloway) have started distilling but have not yet brought a single malt to market. Daftmill could legally start bottling a single malt (or supplying blenders) at any time, because its first batches have now been in cask for over three years. Three years is the legal minimum pre-bottling aging period for a product labelled Scotch whisky, but single malts this young are usually only marketed in countries like Italy. It is not known whether Daftmill are supplying malt to producers of blended whisky or vatted malts, but this is likely (the majority of most distilleries' production is sold this way).

Two further new distilleries have opened in recent years: Kingsbarns distillery (2014)[4] and InchDairnie distillery (2016),[5] both in Fife. Distilleries are also planned at Lindores Abbey,[6] at Ardgowan,[7] and by the Glasgow Distillery Company in the city centre of Glasgow.[8]

At least six other lowland single malts are still available, but are no longer distilled: Rosebank, Kinclaith, St. Magdalene, Ladyburn, Inverleven, and Littlemill.

Traditionally Lowland single malts are triple distilled (though this has not been true of all of them), often giving them a lighter taste.

Lowland is a "protected locality" for Scotch Whisky distilling under UK Government legislation.[9]

List of Lowland distilleries

Active

In development

References

  1. ↑ Ailsa Bay Distillery Wordpress.com
  2. ↑ Malt Madness New Whisky Distilleries
  3. ↑ "Dram revival after nine decades". BBC. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  4. ↑ "New Kingsbarns Distillery officially opens in Fife". The Scotsman. 2014-12-01. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Hamilton, James (2016-05-18). "New Fife distillery InchDairnie opens its doors". The National. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "New whisky distillery built at historic Lindores Abbey". BBC News. 2016-07-19. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Ardgowan whisky distillery plans approved". BBC News. 2017-03-02. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "Glasgow’s first whisky distillery in 100 years". Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  9. ↑ Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, Section 10: Locality and region geographical indications
  10. ↑ "InchDairnie - Scotch Whisky". Retrieved 8 December 2016.

Further reading

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