GlenAllachie

Mackinlay McPherson, the distilling arm of Scottish and Newcastle, built it during the boom to a design by William Delmé-Evans, with architect Lothian Barclay.^1,2,3 The first wash still run took place on 9 February 1968, and the second pair of stills was first fired on 14 October.^1,8,9 Records show it had 4 stills from the start, though many accounts say Pernod Ricard added the second pair after buying it in 1989.^1,8,9

Invergordon Distillers bought it, along with Jura, from Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in 1985.^2,3,5 It closed in 1987, though some accounts say it was mothballed, or kept ready to restart, from 1985.^2,3,5 In 1989 Campbell Distillers, part of Pernod Ricard, bought it for £3.5 million and restarted it.^2,3,5 Campbell Distillers wanted its malt mainly for the Clan Campbell blend.^3,4,5 In 2001 the Campbell Distillers business merged with Chivas Brothers, after Pernod Ricard bought Chivas.^4,5

The sale closed on 2 October 2017 and included the White Heather and MacNair's blends.^1,6,7 The new owners added a capital A to the name, making it GlenAllachie.⁵ They cut output from a capacity of 4,000,000 litres of alcohol a year to 800,000, which gave time for a longer fermentation.^3,5,10 Another account puts output at 500,000 litres, and Walker's team lengthened fermentation from 52 hours.^3,10,11 In 2018 it began a yearly peated run of about 6 weeks, using mainland peat from St. Fergus.^5,12,13 That run makes about 100,000 litres of alcohol.

Its water comes from 2 dams on Ben Rinnes: Henshead for mashing, where ground malt is mixed with hot water, and Blackstank for cooling.^2,5,17 Other accounts say cooling water comes from a pond fed by the Lour.^2,5,17 Its malted barley comes from local producers on the Moray Firth coast, and the distillery is traditionally unpeated.^5,17 It has 8 stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where yeast turns sugars into alcohol.^3,5,17 Fermentation lasts 160 hours and makes an ester-rich spirit, though other reports give 140 and 100 hours.^3,12