Distillery Thursday: Glen Scotia and the Fall of the World’s Whisky Capital

Campbeltown was once the whisky capital of the world. The Scottish region boasted dozens of distilleries, and there was always a sweet hint of the water of life drifting through the air. Today, only a handful of distilleries remain. This is the story of one of those three icons: Glen Scotia Distillery.

Let’s step back to 1832 on Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula: a kind of paradise for whisky makers. Everything needed for the nectar of the gods is right there: barley, peat, ample fuel, and, being a peninsula, an abundance of water.

It’s no surprise the small town already housed numerous stills. James Steward, together with John Galbraith, founded a company called Steward Galbraith & Co. and established a distillery: Scotia Distillery, named after the Latin word for “Scotland.” (It would be years before the name Glen Scotia became official.)

They didn’t yet have a license to distill, but it followed in 1835. This made the distillery one of the first in Scotland to legally produce whisky after the Excise Act of 1823.

Although the founders didn’t tend the distillery for long, Scotia remained in the Galbraith family for years, until 1919, when it was sold to West Highland Malt Distillers. Their plan was to bring together six Campbeltown distilleries to share costs.

The plan failed, and by 1924 West Highland Malt Distillers collapsed. The money had run out and Scotia’s owner went bankrupt. Fortunately, the doors stayed open when Duncan McCallum, former director of West Highland Malt Distillers, took over. Meanwhile, distilleries across the region were shuttering.

Campbeltown’s distillery count fell from over 30 to fewer than ten. The world’s whisky capital was no longer the largest by numbers and even risked losing its status as a whisky region altogether.

Though Scotia’s new owner had a keen nose for business (he also owned Ben Nevis Distillery), he was dealt a devastating blow. One of his deals turned out to be a scam, reportedly costing McCallum his entire fortune. He took his own life in Crosshill Reservoir, the very source of lifeblood for many Campbeltown distilleries.

Scotia closed and changed hands again. The new owner, Glasgow blender Bloch Brothers, had the stills running by late 1933. They also coined a new name for the distillery, first used in 1939: Glen Scotia.

While “Scotia” still nods to Scotland, the addition of “Glen” Gaelic for “valley”, turns the Campbeltown distillery’s name into “Valley of Scotland.”

As one of only three working distilleries in the region, Glen Scotia seemed poised for a bright future. In the years after reopening, thousands of liters of spirit flowed from its stills. Times were good in Campbeltown, but darker days were still to come.

Fast forward to 1954. Glen Scotia had entered a turbulent era, with owners coming and going as if the place had revolving doors. That year, Bloch Brothers sold the distillery. The Campbeltown whisky maker was acquired by Canadian company Hiram Walker, which soon decided the distillery didn’t fit its portfolio.

Within a year, it was sold again, this time to A. Gilles & Co. Distillers, owners of Littlemill Distillery. Under A. Gilles & Co., Glen Scotia underwent renovations. Then came another blow: the parent company was taken over, a new owner stepped in, and in 1984 the distillery was shut down.

Thankfully, the closure lasted only five years before the stills were fired up again. But it wouldn’t be the last time the lights went out in Campbeltown.

In 1994, the distillery’s new parent company, Gibson International, went bankrupt. Ownership changed once more, this time to Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse (a subsidiary of Loch Lomond). They immediately shut the doors and began selling off the remaining stock bit by bit.

For years, Glen Scotia seemed like a ghost distillery, where the lights flickered on only occasionally. Inside, they tinkered now and then with new make spirit. It wasn’t until 2000 that Loch Lomond Distillery decided to reopen Glen Scotia for good.

The stills are dusted off and fired up again by the Loch Lomond team, and slowly the casks begin to fill once more. In 2007, new leadership arrives in the form of Iain McAlister. A former engineer, he swaps a technical career for a passion for the water of life.

It proves a masterstroke. McAlister leaves nothing to chance and throws himself into optimizing everything, from the two stills that shape the spirit to the grain bill itself. Every detail has to be right. One element McAlister considers absolutely essential is the distinctive “funk” in his whisky.

He and his team achieve it through a long, intensive process of testing, setbacks, and breakthroughs. A key part of the success is an extraordinarily long fermentation time, averaging 128 hours. Glen Scotia ferments longer than any other distillery. With a small team of just 14 people, he builds a new core range, and in the years that follow production steadily increases.

In 2021, the hard work of McAlister and the Glen Scotia team pays off. That year, the Campbeltown distillery takes home the San Francisco World Spirits Competition “Best in Show” award for the Glen Scotia 25 Years Old expression. It also wins Scottish Distillery of the Year at the Scottish Whisky Awards. It’s rare for a distillery to claim both accolades in the same year.

And that’s not all: less than a year later, Victoriana wins two awards, Best Scotch Whisky 2022 at the Online Scotch Whisky Awards and Best No Age Statement Whisky 2022 at the World Spirits Competition.

At present, the romantic distillery produces around 700,000 liters of spirit per year. That’s about the limit of what Glen Scotia’s two copper stills can handle. The future plans of McAlister and his team aren’t yet clear.

What is clear is that the spirit itself comes first for McAlister, and the team will do everything they can to delight whisky lovers, both with exceptional quality whisky and with a memorable experience on every tour. Because everyone is welcome to visit this romantic distillery and take a look behind the scenes.