UNSUNG HEROES
Glenlossie
As the thirst for blended Scotch whisky grew from the 1870s onwards, so a rash of new malt distilleries sprang up to provide them with spirit. The favoured location for such enterprises was the region we now know as Speyside, which tended to produce less assertive and peaty spirit than other parts of Scotland and was therefore ideal for blending purposes. One of these distilleries was Glenlossie
WORDS: GAVIN D SMITH PHOTOS: PETER MOSER, FRIENDS OF SINGLE MALT
During the last three decades of the 19th century, some 30 Speyside distilleries were constructed, with a new breed of whisky entrepreneur coming to the fore. One such figure was John Duff. He along with Alexander Allen, H. Mackay, George Thomson, Charles Shirres and Tobermory distillery owner John Hopkins established Glenlossie in 1876.
Duff was born at Aberchirder, near Huntly in Aberdeenshire. Before deciding the time was right to get in on the blended whisky action with his own distillery, he ran an inn. He would later go on to manage the local Glendronach distillery.
A site was chosen at Thomshill, less than five miles south of Elgin and a mile from the River Lossie, after which the distillery was named. The new plant was built on a slope in order to harness gravity for production processes while a waterwheel at the distillery dam meant that Glenlossie did not have to rely on steam power to operate.
Following the creation of Glenlossie, Duff emigrated to South Africa with the intention of building a whisky distillery there, but the venture ended in failure, as did a similar project in the USA. Duff returned to his native north-east Scotland.
There he went on to construct Longmorn distillery, south of Elgin, in 1893, and neighbouring Benriach five years later. Unfortunately for Duff, by that time, the boom in the blended whisky business was starting to turn to bust due to over-production and he was forced to sell both distilleries to James R Grant in 1899.
Four years previously, John Duff had been central to a restructuring process that created the Glenlossie-Glenlivet Distillery Company Limited. Despite its comparative youth, the distillery was largely rebuilt. As it was located close to the railway line from Perth to Elgin, a dedicated siding was created at that time.
In 1919 the Distillers Company Ltd (DCL) took over Glenlossie, ultimately placing it within its Scottish Malt Distillers subsidiary. 1929 saw considerable damage caused to the distillery by a major fire. One of the fire engines used to fight the blaze, dating back to the 1860s, is now on display at Dallas Dhu distillery.
In 1930 Glenlossie was placed within DCL’s Haig portfolio, and its association with that brand continues to the present day, although sales of Haig blended Scotch are now a mere shadow of what they were a few decades ago.
As demand for Scotch whisky grew in the decades following the Second World War, the number of stills at Glenlossie was increased from four to six during 1962. In 1971 a new distillery, called Mannochmore, was constructed beside Glenlossie to supply malt for DCL blends, notably Haig Gold Label.
Between 1968 and 1971 a ‘dark grains’ plant was installed to process the by-products of distillation into cattle feed, and during the 1990s DCL’s successor company United Distillers upgraded and extended the facility.
A biomass plant was developed at Glenlossie in 2012/13 to provide power for both Glenlossie and Manochmore distilleries and the dark grains plant. The site is also home to an extensive warehousing estate where a range of Diageo’s Speyside malts are matured.
In terms of spirit character, Glenlossie’s stills are equipped with purifiers, which create a relatively light-bodied, textured, oily spirit. The wash still charge is 15,800 litres, and the spirit still charge is 13,500 litres. A mix of short and long fermentations helps promote the whisky’s green, grassy style.
Equipment includes an eight-tonne stainless steel full lauter mashtun, eight larch washbacks, and two stainless steel externally-sited washbacks, added in 2019, as well as six large onion-shaped stills, with horizontal lyne arms.
ABOVE: There are eight larch washbacks at Glenlossie
The distillery with its distinctive pagoda-roofed former maltings has a theoretical capacity of 3m litres of spirit per annum, and in recent times, 12 mashes per week have been processed, producing around 2m lpa.
Glenlossie’s scarcity as a single malt is due to its high demand for blending purpose. Back in 1974 it was classified as one of only a dozen ‘top-class’ Scottish blending malts.
Although Glenlossie single malt is elusive, the Society has bottled it on more than 120 occasions, which tells you all you need to know about just how delightful this whisky is when aficionados are given the chance to savour it.
DON'T BE VAGUE…
The Haig family is whisky royalty, with distilling origins stretching back to the 17th century. By 1939, Haig Gold Label had become the biggest seller in the Distiller’s Company Ltd stable, and from the 1930s to the 1970s the Haig brand was Scotland’s leading whisky. Advertising for the whisky in its distinctive brown bottle and white and gold label bore the strapline ‘Don’t be vague – ask for Haig.’ This slogan was the work of Thomas Henry Egan, who reputedly received £25 and a case of whisky from the distillers for his efforts. In its heyday, the Haig blend sold 30m bottles per year, but that figure has now dwindled to around 3m, with India its most lucrative market. The Haig name is better known these days for the Haig Club single grain brand, produced in Diageo’s Cameronbridge distillery, established by John Haig in 1824.
