Dufftown Distillery, Speyside

The Dufftown distillery is located in the part of Speyside and Banffshire of the same name, an area which also hosts other renowned distilleries (Balvenie , Convalmore, Glendullan, Glenfiddich, Mortlach and Pittyvaich).

Dufftown was born out of the conversion of an old mill in 1896 and it was immediately acquired in 1897 by Peter MacKenzie and Richard Stackpole (owners of Blair Athol distillery) who were seeking to expand their production capacity during the whisky boom of the 1890's.The recession of the 1930’s forced MacKenzie sell Dufftown, along with Blair Athol to Arthur Bell.

From that moment on, Dufftown has been an indispensable component of the Bells blend. Since 1985, Dufftown is part of the drinks conglomerate Diageo; Dufftown is not a widely advertised brand within Diageo's portfolio as the majority of the output goes in blends (Bell's, Dewar's White Label and Johnnie Walker) and as a result the release of single malt bottlings are few and rare. However, Dufftown is Diageo's 'powerhouse' distillery with the largest capacity of all the distilleries in the group. It ‘s worth noting though that it only ranks as 12th of all the distilleries in Scotland, having a smaller capacity than the for example the giants William Grant or Edrington.

The distinctive style of Dufftown single malts is quite malty with a delicate, fragrant, floral and honeysuckle nose.