Speyburn was Inver House's best-selling single malt whisky brand before 2009, when another brand took its place. In 2018, the distillery sold over 500,000 bottles. While maintaining a relatively low profile in Europe, the brand holds a leading position and is very well-known in the United States. A £4 million expansion in 2015 included installing a new 6.25-ton stainless steel mash tun; the distillery retained four wooden washbacks (out of six total) and added at least fifteen stainless steel washbacks. One wash still was converted to a spirit still, while a new, larger wash still was installed. The two spirit stills are connected to worm tub condensers, while the wash still is linked to a shell-and-tube condenser with an external shell. Production recently shifted from five to seven days per week, with fermentation time increased to 72 hours. The distillery currently processes 38 mashes weekly, aiming to produce 4.2 million liters of new make spirit this year. In 1900, Speyburn became the first distillery to discontinue floor malting in favor of drum malting. Although the distillery ceased its own malting operations in the late 1960s, the historic malting machinery and equipment remain intact under the guardianship of Historic Scotland and are available for visitor tours. The core range includes Speyburn 10 Year Old, 15 Year Old, and the no-age-statement Bradan Orach. In December 2018, the distillery introduced Speyburn 18 Year Old as a new core expression, limited to 9,000 bottles annually. In 2015, the US-exclusive limited edition Arranta Casks was launched, followed by the single cask Companion Casks series in 2017, matured in first-fill bourbon casks. Recent duty-free limited releases include bourbon and sherry cask versions of Speyburn 10 Year Old (46% ABV) and Hopkins Reserve (matured in casks that previously held peated whisky). In fall 2018, the bourbon cask-matured Speyburn 18 Year Old joined the core range.
History
Speyburn is hidden in a wooded glen in the Speyside region, a picturesque distillery. It was designed by Charles Doig, the famous distillery architect from Elgin, for John Hopkins & Company, using stones collected from the nearby riverbank. The distillery opened in 1897. Due to the limited site, Doig also installed a Hennessy pneumatic malting drum, the first drum malting equipment in all Speyside distilleries, because it occupied a smaller area. This equipment was used until 1968. Wooden malt bins are still in use today. John Hopkins & Company joined D.C.L. in 1916, and Speyburn was licensed to the now long-forgotten blending company John Robertson & Sons. The distillery has been operated by S.M.D. since 1962; they converted the stills to indirect heating in the same year, and rebuilt the mashing house and reinstalled mashing equipment in 1974, but did not alter Doig's designed still room. Inver House Distillers acquired Speyburn in 1991. Speyburn is Inver House's best-selling single malt brand, selling over 5 million bottles in 2014, especially popular in the United States. Between 2014-2015, the distillery expanded, installing new mash tuns and 15 new fermentation tanks. The existing wash still was converted to a spirit still, and a larger spirit still was newly installed.
Curiosities
Speyburn Distillery was established on the last day of 1897, coinciding with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It was a wild, stormy night, and distillery workers toiled through the night in a windowless stillhouse. On that historic day, only a single cask of whisky was produced. While Speyburn remains relatively unknown in most markets, it ranks among the top six malt whiskies by sales in the United States and is the number one malt whisky in Finland.
Timeline
Brothers John and Edward Hopkins and their cousin Edward Broughton established the distillery under the name John Hopkins & Co.; they already owned Tobermory Distillery; invited Charles Doig as architect to build the distillery; construction cost £17,000
Distillers Company Limited (DCL) acquired Hopkins & Co. and the distillery
Production ceased
Production resumed
Speyburn Distillery was taken over by Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD)
Ceased using drum malting
Inver House Distillers acquired Speyburn Distillery
Speyburn 10 Year Old replaced Speyburn 12 Year Old under the Flower & Bird series
Pacific Spirits (Great Oriole Group) acquired Inver House for $85 million
Launched Speyburn Solera 25 Year Old
When International Beverage Holdings acquired Pacific Spirits UK, Inver House got a new owner
Bradan Orach no-age-statement expression entered the US market
Established Speyburn Group
Distillery expansion
Launched Arranta Casks
Launched Speyburn 15 Year Old and Companion Casks
Launched two travel retail exclusives: Speyburn 10 Year Old and Hopkins Reserve; Launched Speyburn 18 Year Old as a core expression
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