Distillery
Founded in 1887, and we've barely changed the recipe.
Cask No. 9 was built by a stonemason and a maltster who bet a valley's worth of water on one whisky. We still use the stills they installed.
Founded
1887
Stills
2 copper pot
Warehouses
7 dunnage
The process
Five steps, watched by hand at every stage.
01
Malting
Two-row barley from three farms within eight miles of the distillery steeps in spring water, chits over three days, then dries slowly over a peat-lit kiln until it carries just a whisper of smoke.
02
Mashing
The malted barley is milled to a coarse grist and mixed with hot water in our cast-iron mash tun, drawing out fermentable sugars into a sweet liquid called wort.
03
Fermenting
Wort cools into our Oregon-pine washbacks, where house yeast works for 68 hours — longer than most distilleries bother with — building the fruity, estery character that becomes orchard fruit in the finished spirit.
04
Distilling
Two copper pot stills, both original to 1887 and re-coppered twice since, concentrate the wash into new-make spirit. Our stillman cuts the heart of the run by nose alone, no instrument involved.
05
Maturing
New-make spirit fills ex-bourbon, virgin and sherry-seasoned oak at 63.5% and goes to sleep in a stone dunnage warehouse for years — sometimes decades — before we let it out.
The warehouse
Stone walls, earth floors, no shortcuts.
Our seven dunnage warehouses stack casks just three high on their sides, resting on oak rails over packed earth. It's slower and less efficient than racking casks upright in a modern shed — and it's why our oldest whiskies still taste like the valley instead of like a warehouse.
Warehouse 3, the coolest and dampest of the seven, holds every cask destined for a Reserve release. Nobody enters without the warehouseman.