UNSUNG HERO
Lead on Macduff
There are many distilleries across Scotland that sneak under the radar and deserve more airtime. In the latest of our series on ‘unsung hero’ distilleries, Gavin D Smith takes a closer look at Macduff, known largely for its contribution towards William Lawson’s blended Scotch whisky
The twin historic ports of Macduff and Banff lie on opposite banks of the River Deveron, facing the southern Moray Firth coast, between the Highland capital of Inverness and Scotland’s premier fishing centre of Fraserburgh.
Banff boasted a whisky distillery at Inverboyndie from 1863 until 1983, when it closed as part of the Distillers Company Limited’s major rationalisation programme that saw no fewer than 21 Scottish malt distilleries shut down in two years.
Macduff Distillery was constructed during 1962-63 by Macduff Distillers Limited, two decades before the demise of its near neighbour at Banff. The early 1960s were a time when export sales of blended Scotch were growing and several new whisky-making facilities were being constructed, while the 1980s witnessed supply of spirit outstrip demand, with attendant contraction within the Scotch whisky industry.
Macduff Distillers Limited comprised several Glasgow whisky brokers, including George Crawford, James Stirrat, Marty Dyke and Brodie Hepburn Ltd. The last-named company also owned the Perthshire distillery of Tullibardine, which it had acquired in 1953.
Tullibardine dated from 1949 and had been designed by one of the whisky industry’s often overlooked figures, the Welsh-born surveyor and estate manager William Delmé-Evans, who had a keen practical interest in distilling and was also responsible for rebuilding Jura distillery and later for designing Glenallachie on Speyside.
Due to his previous association with Brodie Hepburn at Tullibardine, Delmé-Evans was recruited to work on the Macduff venture. Part-way through the distillery’s construction, however, allegedly after disagreements with the consortium of brokers behind the venture, Delmé-Evans resigned from his post, and for the rest of his life, never mentioned his involvement with the project.
Production began in 1963, and the following year, a third still was added to the original pair, with the complement rising to four in 1967, reflecting the increasing growth of Scotch whisky sales. Ownership of Macduff passed in 1966 to brokers Block, Grey & Block, which formed Glendeveron Distilleries, and in 1972 the distillery was acquired by the William Lawson Ltd subsidiary of vermouth specialists Martini & Rossi, which was renamed William Lawson Distillers in the same year.
The Lawson blended Scotch brand traces its origins back to William Lawson, born in Scotland between 1853 and 1859, and subsequently resided in Dublin, where he was a senior and long-serving employee of E&J Burke’s blending and bottling company. In the ownership of Martini & Rossi, Macduff became a principal component of the popular Lawson blend, but the Highland single malt was also introduced into the Italian market in 5 and 8-year-old formats under the Glen Deveron name, and older expressions followed.
PICTURED: The River Deveron
In 1990 the tun room and stillhouse were rebuilt, with the addition of a fifth still, making Macduff one of few Scottish distilleries to operate a pair of wash stills and three spirit stills.
In 1993 Martini Rossi was taken over by the Bacardi Corporation, and after Bacardi acquired the John Dewar & Sons Ltd assets from Diageo during 1998, Macduff distillery joined Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie and Royal Brackla in the Dewar portfolio.
The distillery has a theoretical capacity of 4.1 million litres of pure alcohol (LPA) per annum, with 27 mashes per week for 48 weeks of the year bringing output close to that figure.
A Steinecker full-lauter mash tun dating from 2022 processes 7.8-tonne mashes, while nine stainless steel washbacks each have a capacity of 34,000 litres, and fermentation lasts for 55 hours.
Noting that the stillhouse was the most interesting part of Macduff distillery, scotchwhisky.com declared that: “In here are five stills – two wash and three spirit – all of which have upward-tilting lyne arms that have a right-angled kink in them. The spirit stills also have horizontal shell and tube condensers. The character is nutty (slightly sulphury at new make stage), with quick mashing, short fermentation and cold condensers. It is this last technique which adds weight to the spirit. It could well be that the kink in the lyne arm helps create just enough reflux to contribute a balancing fruitiness.”
“In here are five stills – two wash and three spirit – all of which have upward-tilting lyne arms that have a right-angled kink in them”
PICTURED: The inside workings of Macduff Distillery
It is claimed that upon establishment, Macduff was the first distillery in Scotland to install ‘shell and tube’ condensers, rather than the customary worm tubs, with many distilleries switching to condensers during the next decade.
In terms of the Lawson blend, in which Macduff spirit plays such an important part, 2023 saw the brand occupy fifth place in the global best-selling blends table, accounting for 37 million bottles.
It is highly unusual for proprietary single malt Scotch whisky bottlings not to use the registered name of the distillery in which they were produced, but ‘The Deveron’ is employed for all but duty-free expressions, where ‘Glen Deveron’ is deployed. Only independent bottlings are referred to as ‘Macduff.’
The Society has now released more than 80 expressions of Macduff, embracing an unrivalled range of ages and cask types, all of which demonstrate why this Highland single malt is very well worthy of members’ attention.
ABOVE: All of Macduff's stills have upward-tilting lyne arms