Linkwood is a Speyside malt whisky distillery on the outskirts of Elgin, founded in 1821 by Peter Brown, factor (manager) of the Linkwood Estate.1,2,3 A second distillery was built beside it in 1971, and the original buildings were demolished in 2012.1,2,3Diageo has owned it since 1997.2,3,4
Peter Brown kept his nose clean until the 1823 Excise Act was on the statute book, and production began in 1825.1,2,3 James Walker became manager in about 1840 and ran the distillery until Peter Brown died in 1868, when his son William took over.1,2,3 In 1872–1873 William designed and built a new distillery on the same site.2,3,5 Alfred Barnard's 1887 survey found 2 pot stills heated by open furnaces, 5 washbacks, and a kiln heated with peat.5 He wrote that the woods around the distillery gave it its name, and that it made 50,000 gallons a year.5 After William's death, the family set up the Linkwood-Glenlivet company in 1898 and listed it on the stock exchange.1,2,3
Sources disagree: the date. This page uses 1825.
1825: Aberdeenshire Council Historic Environment Record, Wikipedia1,3
Innes Cameron joined the company in 1902 and ran Linkwood as managing director until his death in 1932.3 By then he was its largest shareholder.3 In 1932 Scottish Malt Distillers took control, and Linkwood joined the stable of the Distillers Company (DCL).2,3 Whiskypedia lists Distillers Company Limited as the owner from 1936.2 A barley shortage during World War II closed the distillery from 1941 until it reopened in 1945.1,3
Roderick Mackenzie's years
1945–1963
Roderick Mackenzie led the distillery from 1945 to 1963 and believed that everything in it contributed to the final whisky.3 In 1962 Scottish Malt Distillers had the distillery fully refurbished, with Mackenzie overseeing the work in his last year as manager.1,3 Electric power replaced the steam engine and water wheel, and every still was replaced with an exact replica of the old one.1,3
Two distilleries side by side
In 1971 a second distillery with 4 stills, known as Linkwood B, went up beside the first.1,2,3 Its stills were heated by steam, and the old stills were converted to steam as well.1,2,3 In 1977 industrial historian John Hume described it as expensively modernised, keeping a single kiln for drying malt, probably for its decorative value.1,6 The original stillhouse stopped production in 1985 but stayed in use as a test site for research into copper, reflux and worm tubs.1,2,3United Distillers owned Linkwood from 1986 until took over in 1997.
Next: Two distilleries side by side, Rebuilt and enlarged, How Linkwood makes its spirit
In 2012 an almost £5 million upgrade cleared the old buildings and put 6 new washbacks and 2 new copper stills in a new building.2,7,8 Diageo completed it in November 2013, adding around 50% to yearly capacity, and said Linkwood makes single malt for its blended Scotch whiskies.2,7,8
How Linkwood makes its spirit
Whiskypedia lists its malt as non peated.2 Whiskypedia lists the malt supplier as mainly in house.2 It has 8 washbacks made of wood.2 Fermentation in them lasts 75 hours.2 Wikipedia counts 3 wash stills and 3 spirit stills, while Whiskypedia gives a different total.3 The stills are plain in shape and heated by steam.2 Shell and tube condensers cool the vapour from the stills.2 Its water comes from the Millbuies Spring.2,3 Whiskypedia counts Linkwood among the light Speyside spirits.2 It credits the spirit's fragrance to very clear wort, a very long fermentation, and slow distilling in stills where the spirit still is larger than the wash still.2
