Distillery Profile: Macduff

Macduff is a single malt distillery in the east Highlands of Scotland, close to the coastal town of Banff.

 

The Deveron brand, which was previously named Glen Deveron, sells over half a million bottles per year across the world. It has a particularly strong presence within the travel retail sector.

However, the distillery’s main function, and the reason it was built, is to provide single malt for blends. It is particularly associated with the popular William Lawson’s blended Scotch brand, for which it is a major ingredient. The blend is most sold in France but also popular in Spain, Portugal and Mexico.

A Bit of History

The Macduff distillery was established in 1960. This was a time that saw a Scotch whisky industry boom on the back of increased sales of blends. Several distilleries were built to support this, especially in Speyside and the Highlands. It was founded by Macduff Distillers Ltd. – this was formed of a group of Glasgow whisky brokers including George Crawford, Marty Dyke, Brodie Hepburn and James Stirrat.

The distillery was designed by renowned mid-century architect William Delme-Evans.  In 1966 the distillery was sold to Block, Grey & Block and they formed Glendeveron Distilleries. Then in 1972 Macduff was acquired by William Lawson Distillers, part of the larger Martini & Rossi group. They saw the distillery as perfect for supplying their popular William Lawson’s blend. This was the beginning of Macduff’s association with the brand.

Martini & Rossi operated Macduff for over 20 years before being purchased by Bacardi in 1993. They remain the current owners and run it via John Dewar & Sons, their Scotch whisky wing. Under Bacardi’s ownership both the single malt brand and William Lawson’s blend have grown in sales considerably.

Background

Macduff distils a soft, sweet and fruity spirit that exhibits green apple and nutty notes. The new make spirit is often described as having a slight oily texture. Most of the spirit is matured in one cask type – ex-bourbon barrels sourced from the American whiskey industry. A small percentage is also matured in ex-sherry casks from Spain.

The single malt range is released by the owners under The Deveron name. This was previously known as Glen Deveron but changed in 2015. There are two age statements at 10- and 12 Years Old. There are four further whiskies for travel retail at 16-, 20-, 25- and 28 Years Old. You will only find this Highland malt labelled as Macduff by independent bottlers.

The Geeky Bit

The Macduff distillery is equipped with a 7.8 tonne mash tun, which runs 27 mashes per week. Each mash is fed to one of nine stainless steel washbacks, which have an individual capacity of 34,000 litres. The fermentation time is 55 hours.

There are five stills – two wash stills and three spirit stills. This is unusual as stills tend to work in pairs at most distilleries. The quirkiness does not stop there – the stills have upwardly tilting lyne arms that have right-angled kinks in them. And the spirit stills also have rare horizontal condensers. The annual production capacity is four million litres.

One To Buy | The Deveron 10 Years Old

The only bottling readily available on the UK market and it is somewhat of a classic. A hidden gem of a Highland whisky that is waiting to be discovered. It is bottled at 40% ABV. Expect soft, sweet and fruity aromas on the nose with plenty of green apple, vanilla and a twist of orange peel. The whisky is slightly bolder when tasted with butterscotch, baked apple and hazelnut notes supported by a delicate gingerbread-like spice.

 

by Matt Chambers
Master of Whisky at Whisky 1901
30/06/2025

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