Dailuaine Whisky

In 1852, William Mackenzie founded Dailuaine Distillery. Dailuaine derives from the Scottish Gaelic ‘An dail uaine’ meaning ‘green valley’, named most probably for those elegant undulations of the Spey valley in which the Dailuaine whisky distillery lies.William had also been a farmer who worked in the Carron area. Following his death in 1865, William Mackenzie’s wife leased the distillery to a banker from Aberlour called James Fleming, who, with William’s son, formed Mackenzie and Company in 1879. Five years later an extensive rebuild commenced, leaving the distillery as one of Scotland’s largest. Another five years on and Charles Doig built Scotland’s first pagoda roof, which graced the distillery until it collapsed in 1917 after a menacing conflagration desecrated the buildings.

In 1898, Dailuaine-Talisker Distilleries Ltd was formed, the group included an Aberdeen based grain distillery, fellow Speysider Imperial, Dailuaine distillery and the Skye-based Talisker. In 1925, Distillers Company Limited acquired the company, latterly amalgamating with Diageo. Dailuaine also operates a dark grains plant, whose principal job being to convert draff into feed for cattle. The plant currently processes around 900 tonnes weekly. The bulk of single malt produced at the distillery is used for blending in Johnnie Walker. The spirit is filled at Cambus and then transported to Blackrange for maturation in the Diageo-owned warehouses. Single malt bottlings from Dailuaine are few and far between; there have been few independent bottlings and but a handful of official releases.