Allt-a-Bhainne, Gaelic for 'Burn of Milk', is a Speyside malt whisky distillery that Chivas Brothers, then part of Seagram, built in Moray in 1975.1,2,3 It was built as a modern, computerised plant with all the equipment in one room, and was designed to be run by one person.1,2,3Pernod Ricard has owned it through Chivas Brothers since 2001.1,2,4
Very good review score, 88 out of 100Very good88/100
A creamy, fruity whisky balancing peaches, melons and pears with warming ginger spice, subtle herbs, nutty notes and a long salted-butter finish.
almond
apricot
butter
chamomile
+23 more
By Ruben
Silent, 2002–2005
Producing, 2005–today
19752000Today
A modern plant for blends
Its buildings follow a modern design, but four small pagodas on the still house roof echo older distilleries.1,2,3 It was built to supply Chivas Brothers blends, and before its first official single malt its whiskies went only into those blends and a few independent bottlings.1,2,3 Those blends include Chivas Regal.5,6
Pernod Ricard and a pause
Seagram's ownership ended in 2001, when Pernod Ricard bought Chivas Brothers.1,2,4 Production stopped in 2002, when the distillery was mothballed; Whiskypedia dates this to 2003.1,2,7 Mothballing means a distillery stops production but keeps its equipment ready to restart.1,2,7Chivas Brothers reopened it in May 2005 and ran it at full capacity.1,2,6
Sources disagree: when it was mothballed. This page uses 2002.
On 1 September 2022, Chivas Brothers announced plans to install mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) at the distillery in 2023.8,9 MVR captures and recycles heat from distillation, and Global Drinks Intel reports that Chivas Brothers uses it at Allt A’Bhainne.8,9
How it makes its spirit
Its water comes from springs on Benrinnes, and the Mains Burn supplies water for cooling.1,2,3 Its malt comes from the supplier Crisp and is specified at less than 1 ppm, a measure of how peated malt is.2 It has 8 stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where wort, sugary water from the mash, ferments into a beer called wash.2,7 Fermentation lasts 48 hours.2 It distils in 2 wash stills and 2 spirit stills.1,2 The stills have a traditional Speyside shape.2 Steam heats them, through an outside heat exchanger for the wash stills and 1 spirit still, and through steam elements for the second spirit still.
