You will not find masses of malt lovers able to boast of having enjoyed Inchgower in its pure form. This is because 99% of the malt production is to be found in the Bells, Johnnie Walker and White Horse blends. Parent company Diageo have released a 14-year-old single malt in its Flora & Fauna range, while 22 and 27-year-old iterations are to be found in the Rare Malts Collection.
Built in1871 to replace the Tochineal distillery, developers and distillers Alexander Wilson & Co. were declared bankrupt before they could fully utilise the existing buildings and equipment. Step in the Buckie town council. Buckie, on the Moray coast, has always been an important fishing community, and the councillors would have been more at home with sprats than spirits, so they were more than happy when Arthur Bell came along two years later and paid the council the princely sum of £3,000 for lock, stock and barrels!
In 1966 two new spirit stills were added, doubling Inchgower’s production capacity, which is evident in the 13 giant warehouses which can accommodate up to 60,000 casks.
Due to the location of its water source, Inchgower is strictly termed a Lower Speyside malt, and while it possesses those archetypal attributes of oats and mellow fruit, its coastal location adds a balancing salinity and a curious waxiness.
