Speyburn 1971 Single Malt Whisky

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.