Aberfeldy is the only distillery the Dewar family built, and it began making spirit in November 1898 to supply the heart malt for Dewar's blends.1,2,3 Bacardi has owned it since 1998.1,4,5
The nearby Pitilie distillery closed in about 1867, and its proven burn water was later one reason for building here.6,7 The Pitilie Burn still supplies Aberfeldy's water.4,8,9 John Dewar & Sons began building in 1896, a stone's throw from where the founder John Dewar was born.1,10,11 Distillery architect Charles Cree Doig gave it a pagoda roof over the kiln and a layout running from barley at one end to whisky at the other.1,10,11 On opening it made 20 butts of spirit a week, some 2,200 gallons, but the Pattison crisis had just brought down the price of whisky.1,2,3
Mergers and war
In 1915 John Dewar & Sons merged with James Buchanan & Co. to form Buchanan-Dewar.4,5 Barley was needed as food in the First World War, so the distillery closed from 1917 to 1919.4,12,13 In 1925 it passed to the Distillers Company Limited, which moved it into its subsidiary Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930.1,3,12 In 1934 the DCL Gazette, the firm's in-house paper, called it silent for the past few years, which suggests it also closed between the wars.13
New stills and a lost railway
In 1960 the stills were replaced with exact copies, fired by a mechanical coal stoker instead of by hand.13 A new still house was built in 1965.3,10 Aberfeldy station closed in 1965, cutting the private rail link the distillery used for everything coming in and out.4,10,14 Malting on site ended in the 1960s, Historic Environment Scotland says; Difford's Guide blames the rail closure and the Distillers Company's move to central malting.4,10,14 In 1972 the site was rebuilt to double its capacity, and its two coal-fired stills gave way to four steam-heated stills.1,3,12
From Guinness to Bacardi
Guinness took over the Distillers Company in 1986, and the firm was renamed United Distillers in 1987.4,13,15 United Distillers merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo in 1997.5,13 In 1998 the UK Monopolies Board forced Diageo to sell, and Bacardi bought John Dewar & Sons Ltd. with Aberfeldy.1,4,5
Sources disagree: the date. This page uses 1987.
Next: From Guinness to Bacardi, Under Bacardi, How it makes its spirit
In 2000 the old malting hall reopened as Dewar's World of Whisky, a visitor centre.1,12,13 Late in 2014 a biomass boiler burning wood pellets replaced the oil-fired boilers that made steam to heat the stills.11,16,17 Bacardi says the boiler cut the site's carbon footprint by 90 percent.11,16,17 When it marked 125 years in 2023, John MacKenzie was distillery manager and Stephanie Macleod was malt master.11
Most of its spirit goes into Dewar's blends, and Wikipedia calls it their largest malt.1,4,12 Whiskypedia says all of it was kept for the Dewar's blend until 1999.1,4,12 Simpsons malts its barley unpeated, to the distillery's own specification.4,6,9 An SMWS newsletter account says it once got most of its malt, medium-peated, from the Glenesk Maltings.4,6,9 The distillery's stainless steel mash tun, where ground malt is mixed with hot water, dates from 1995.9,10 It has 10 washbacks, the tanks where sugary wort ferments into wash: 8 of Siberian larch and 2 of stainless steel.4,9,10 Fermentation is long, though sources differ on how long: 65-85 hours, 72-88 hours, or at least 70 hours.4,9,18 The distillery says long fermentation brings out its honeyed notes.4,8,9 It has 2 wash stills and 2 spirit stills.4,9,12 Forsyths made its onion-shaped copper stills, which are heated by steam.4,8,9 Manager Brian Bisset told an SMWS newsletter of the very slow distillation in its wide-necked stills, and the spirit run lasts eight hours.4,8,12 Shell and tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.4,9 It can make 2.7 million litres of alcohol a year.4 The buildings were listed at Category B in 2002, which gives them legal protection.10,12
