Having been closed in 1983, and gradually demolished, the remaining whiskies from Banff distillery are being bottled independently, with ever increasing wood influence on the remaining casks. Generally quite sweet and grassy, with florals and apples, the whisky can also give smoky, coastal and herbal notes. As time goes on, bottlings are showing much more intense woody, sherry and spice flavours.
Founded
1863
Owner
Diageo
Production Status
Demolished
Capacity
N/A
The original Banff distillery was built in 1824 by James McKilligan & Co, just outside the town of the same name, and had a 40 year run through two further owners before James Simpson Jr, built a new distillery in 1863, closer to the Great North of Scotland railway, to replace the original site.
For the first century, Banff favoured the triple distillation method usually used in Irish whisky production, continuing this practice from the original distillery until 1924, when they switched to double distilling.
Banff is generally known as the unluckiest distillery in Scotland’s history, as it suffered multiple tragedies of fire and explosions. 1877 saw the beginning of their curse, when most of the production buildings were destroyed in a fire. The family quickly rebuilt and benefitted from the two decades of ‘whisky boom’ that followed, before the bubble burst in the 1930s and they were forced to sell to DCL in 1932.
The run of bad luck continued in 1941, when a German bomber destroyed warehouse 12, sending whisky over the fields and into the river, reportedly intoxicating local cows, leaving them too drunk to be milked the next day. The final devastation came in 1959, when the repair of a still ignited the vapours inside and destroyed most of the stillhouse.
Given these incidents, it seems quite fitting that the last building to be demolished, after the distillery’s final closure in 1983, was destroyed in a fire before the demolition crew could get to work.
