Mortlach

Mortlach was the name of the village which grew around the abbey of the same name, founded by Saint Moluag in the 7th century. With the construction of Dufftown in 1817, the old name was almost entirely forgottenn - except for the whisky distillery.

The Mortlach distillery was officially founded in 1823 on the site of a former illicit distillery - becoming Dufftown's first legal distillery. Today it is the epicenter of Speyside whiskey distilling. George Cowie and his son Alexander, from the 1850's onward, resumed whiskey production and propelled Mortlach to the forefront of the blended malt business. It was even one of the very few spirits distilleries authorized to produce alcohol during the Second World War, until 1944.

Performing a partial triple distillation, and benefiting from an old-fashioned "worm tube" condensation system, which it shares with the Talisker and Edradour distilleries, Mortlach produces a very delicate distillate. We often speak of "2,8 distillations" because the single malt produced is a blend of 80% triple distillation and 20% double distillation. Like many malt distilleries of the Diageo group, which bought Mortlach through its subsidiary John Walker, few official bottlings exist, except under the Flora & Fauna and Rare Malt product lines, released in the 1990's.

Check out the Mortlach scotch whisky.