Glengyle is owned by the Mitchell family who also own Springbank, they are located close to each other in the centre of Campbeltown. But blink and you'd miss them as they are up a small back alley!
The approach to the distillery is between a couple of warehouses, Alistair found one that was unlocked...
...it was full of whisky magic!
The distilleries share a visitor centre and shop.
Continuing through the Springbank distillery brings you to the Glengyle distillery.
They are still landscaping the area between the two distilleries and adding more warehouses as the production from both is due to ramp up.
The current range consists of the 8yo CS, 12yo and Heavily Peated, we were also shown the Work in progress range and some 15yo special editions which will be hitting the shelves soon!
So why Kilkerran whisky and not Glengyle? Well, because the name Glengyle is already used for a blended Highland malt from Loch Lomond Group (sold mainly in France) and they didn't want to cause any confusion.
The Glengyle Distillery was founded in 1872 by William Mitchell. William the son of Archibald Mitchell, the founder of nearby Springbank. It continued in production until 1925 around the time that most distilleries in Campbeltown ran into hard times and closed. Around the turn of the century the SWA wanted to remove Campbeltown as an official scotch whisky 'region' as it had less than the required 3 distilleries.
So in 2000 Hedley Wright, chairman of J&A Mitchell and Co Ltd, and great-great nephew of William Mitchell, original founder of Glengyle reopened it to increase the number of distilleries in the Campbeltown 'Region' to the minimum of 3.
The distilleries share more than just the same owner! The staff switch between the two distilleries, working in Glengyle for a few months each year (October-December in 2019) whilst Springbank has it's maintenance 'downtime'. The barley is malted in Springbank's Malt Barns then transported down the road to Glengyle and stored in huge malt bins.
The lovely Leigh took us on the tour, it was just the five of us so you could count it as a private tour!
The germinated barley is ground into grist in a Vickers Ltd Boby Malting Plant which came from Craigellachie Distillery
Before being mashed in a stainless steel semi lauter mash tun
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
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These all look fairly new and they are. Because the distillery isn't in continuous production the washbacks aren't in use all year round and the wood isn't lasting as long as it should. Some of these are only 2 years old.
Some of the steel rings from the old washbacks were stacked outside.
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
The whole distilling process is done on one floor.
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
With distillation being done in two huge ex-Ben Wyvis distillery pot stills.
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
We all had a go at trying to recreate the famous Kilkerran logo with the Lorne & Lowland Parish Church tower through the window.
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
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| Photo: @JWBassman_ |
A great time was had by all!
As you can see we were all wearing our Cadenhead Club polos and that's where we were off to next - a Cadenhead's Warehouse tasting!
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