Distillery Thursday: Back to the original Aberlour Distillery

It’s Thursday again, which means it’s time to dive into the rich history of a distillery. This week we’re heading to Scotland to unravel the story behind the Aberlour Distillery. To do so, we’re traveling almost 200 years back in time to beautiful Speyside. Welcome to another Distillery Thursday.

If you have a bottle of Aberlour whisky at home, you’ll see the words “est. 1879” on the label. While this is correct for the founding of the modern Aberlour distillery, we need to go much further back to uncover the true origins of this Speyside icon. In fact, the story of the Aberlour Distillery begins more than 50 years earlier, in 1826.

That year, Peter Weir and James Gordon established the original Aberlour distillery. The stillhouse was built near the River Spey in the village of Aberlour. Within about a year the ownership changed hands: in 1827 Peter Weir stepped away from the project, passing ownership to brothers James and John Grant.

They soon decided to move on and build a distillery of their own. In 1838 they founded the Glen Grant Distillery, while Aberlour fell dormant. In 1879, a devastating fire broke out, destroying most of the buildings.

James Fleming, a banker from Aberlour and the distillery’s new owner, chose to rebuild the stillhouse at a different site. He selected a location beside two watermills, a grain mill and a sawmill, situated on the Burn of Aberlour, a tributary of the River Spey. With the Earl of Fife’s blessing, construction began, and a year later the distillery was ready to produce once more.

At that time, Aberlour Distillery was the most modern working distillery in the region. Spirit once again flowed into casks to mature into Speyside whisky, and things went well for years. In 1892, Fleming sold the Speyside distillery to focus on other ventures in the village. The new owners were the distillery’s managers.

Under their leadership, output increased—until 1898, when a thunderous blast shook the site. A massive explosion ignited a fierce blaze that reduced most of the new Aberlour distillery to ashes. The majority of the maturing whisky was lost as well. The owners didn’t hesitate: they immediately began rebuilding. With the fire having destroyed almost everything, they used the opportunity to modernize again, installing the latest stills and equipment available at the time.

After Aberlour was rebuilt, it was eventually sold to a brewing family. W.H. Holt & Sons took the helm and operated successfully in Speyside for more than 24 years. In 1945, they sold the distillery to S. Campbell and Sons. The new owner invested heavily to expand capacity, replacing the two existing copper stills with four new ones.

This made Aberlour Distillery one of the largest in Scotland at the time—and rightly so, as demand for whisky was soaring. The distillery also revamped its production and maturation approach. From then on, all new whiskies were double-distilled and matured almost exclusively in red wine and sherry casks. Only locally grown barley from the Aberlour region was used.

The resulting whiskies became quintessentially Aberlour: smooth, with a predominantly sweet profile. They drew a new following of enthusiasts who favor notes of dark fruit and a nutty character. In 1974, there was another change of ownership when S. Campbell and Sons was acquired by French drinks company Pernod Ricard. Aberlour thus joined the Chivas Brothers portfolio. Under Pernod Ricard’s wing, Aberlour has seen remarkable growth in recent years.

The brand has firmly established itself as a single malt, and the range has expanded significantly. There are various age-statement expressions spanning from 10 to 21 years old. The 12 and 14 Year Old Double Cask whiskies sit at the core of the lineup, alongside A’bunadh. For this latter whisky, the Speyside distillery drew inspiration from Old Gaelic.

A’bunadh roughly translates to “the original” or “of the origin.” The story behind this whisky dates back to the distillery’s renovation, when an old bottle, containing this style of whisky, was discovered.

Want to read more on Aberlour? Find the latest on the brand on this special page.

Header photo: Pernod Ricard