Longmorn
Many Scottish Whisky distilleries were founded during the Whisky boom at the end of the 19th century but in contrast to most of them Longmorn succeeded to survive. The Speyside distillery that is situated in Elgin/Morayshire next to the Ben Riach Distillery has constantly produced without any terms of mothballing up to now.
Details about the Distillery
The Whisky
Ever since the first Whisky of Longmorn was released it has been a very favourite Whisky for blenders. It is for example a main ingredient in the Scotch Whisky Blend Chivas Regal. As a very aromatic Whisky with fruity as well as spicy notes and a fine balanced sweetness the Longmorn shows a very expressive Speyside character. No wonder that it not only goes into Blends but is also a very popular Single Malt Whisky, especially among independent bottlers. But you also can find original bottlings of the Longmorn: In 2007 a 16 year old release replaced the 15 year old expression and it got famous and well considered since then. Two silver medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition give proof of that.
Production
Longmorn Distillery is very proud of the local character of its Whisky because water of the nearby Burnside wells, barley from Moray and peat from the Mannoch Hill are used to produce it. It has not been long since Longmorn changed from direct coal firing of their stills to indirect heating by steam: only in 1993 modernization took place. Floor malting was done at Longmorn up to 1970. Then the malting room was used to host the boilers of the distillery and malt for Longmorn was produced on the malting floors of the nearby Benriach malting floors. Since 1999 they are also mothballed.
Refurbishing and extension in 2012 brought up the annual production capacity up to 4.500.000 liters.
Mashing
A mashtun with a capacity of 8 tuns (it is a new one since the refurbishing in 2012) takes up the clear water coming from the Burnside wells and the malted barley that was grind in the malt mill, having passed a barley sieves.
Fermentation
Fermentation at Longmorn distillery takes place in the new tun room with its eight mash tuns made of stainless steel.
Distillation
Originally there were 4 stills at Longmorn, but in 1972 their number was increased to 6 and in 1974 to 8. So today in 4 wash stills (16.820 l each) and 4 spirit stills (3 x 15.000 l and 1 x 13.638 l) that are onion shaped the new spirit for the Longmorn Whisky is distilled.
There is an old workable steam engine at Longmorn Distillery and you can as well see an old waterwheel. In former times the rummagers of the wash stills were powered that way.
Warehouses
There’s a row of dunnage warehouses onside to store some of the Longmorn Whisky, but most of the production is transported to Keith and Mulben were there are several bonded warehouses of Pernod Ricard, the owner of Longmorn Distillery.
History
Whisky was booming and like many others John Duff, Charles Shirres and George Thomson decided to jump on the bandwagon and open a distillery. But they knew their business and invested their 20.000 pounds well: John Duff had been manager of Glendronach and worked at several other distilleries as well. He realized the good chances the site here at Elgin offered with its water sources, barley and the railway next to it. Production started in December 1894 and three years later Duff sold us his companions.
Longmorn was so prosperous that Duff opened a second distillery just next to it: Benriach Distillery. But in 1898 due to the recession of the Whisky business and the collapse of wholesale buyers Duff was ruined and sold everything. James Grant took over Longmorn and the successful story of Longmorn as a key Whisky in Blends begun. When The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd were created in the 1970s, Longmorn merged with the Glenlivet. The capacity of Longmorn was doubled in 1972 and in 1974 as well.
The Chivas and Glenlivet Group was a part of Seagram and with that company the Longmorn Distillery was taken over by Pernod Ricard in December 2001.
Visitor Center
There’s no visitor center at Longmorn Distillery which is not opened to the public.