Auchentoshan

Heritage records find no positive reference to the distillery before 1830.⁷ In 1834, after John Bulloch went bankrupt, John Hart and Alexander Filshie bought it.^1,5,8 They named it Auchentoshan, Gaelic for "corner of the field", though it was spelled Auchintoshan at the time.^1,5,8 In 1875 the Filshies sold it to CH Curtis & Co., whisky merchants from Greenock.^1,2,5 When Alfred Barnard visited under Curtis ownership, it made 50,000 gallons of whisky a year.^1,2,5 Barnard's 1887 book records two old pot stills, four washbacks, and its own malting and malt kiln.⁹ Its water then came from the Cochna Loch on the Kilpatrick Hills.⁹ Alexander Ferguson & Co owned it in 1900, and heritage records say it was probably rebuilt in the late 1890s, perhaps by that firm.^3,7,10 A Tangye steam engine, probably installed in the late 1890s, drove the distillery equipment and has been preserved.^3,7,10

In 1903 the brewers George and John McLachlan took over, and heritage records say the unusual sheet-iron roof vents were probably due to brewer owners.^1,2,7 Their Iona blend presumably used Auchentoshan as its main whisky, says Grace's Guide.^1,2,7 In 1941 a German bomb raid severely damaged the distillery; its own history says one warehouse was destroyed, while Wikipedia says several were struck.^1,2,5 Production stopped during the Second World War, and a bomb crater became the distillery pond.^1,2,5 In 1960 J & R Tennent of Wellpark Brewery, Glasgow, bought it and decided to use malted barley from breweries in Edinburgh.

In 1969 Bass Charrington sold it to Eadie Cairns, which modernised it and sold Auchentoshan as a single malt in its own hotels and restaurants.^1,3,7 Its spirit also went into the Cairns blend and to 'own label' clients, and one heritage record dates the sale to 1974.^1,3,7 In 1984 Stanley P Morrison, later Morrison Bowmore, bought it for £325,000.^1,5,8 Suntory had invested in Morrison Bowmore in 1989 and bought all of it in 1994.^1,5,

Auchentoshan uses unpeated malt from Simpsons.^4,5 Its production water comes from Loch Katrine, and its cooling water from Loch Cochno.^5,12 It can make 1.75 million litres of alcohol a year.⁵ Fermentation lasts 50 hours by one account, or 50 to 60 hours by another.^5,13 Whiskypedia says this short fermentation gives the spirit a cereal note.^5,13 It has one wash still and one spirit still.¹² A third, intermediate still helps give a final spirit strength of 81% ABV, or alcohol by volume.¹² Whiskypedia says all of its production is used for single malt.