Auchentoshan’s story
Until the recent craft distilling boom, Auchentoshan was the closest distillery to Glasgow, located in Clydebank just to the north west of the city’s suburbs. The distillery practices triple distillation, which is more common in the Irish whiskey industry. It is the only Scottish distillery to permanently do this (although others produce triple distilled spirit from time to time), with all other Scottish distilleries only distilling their spirit twice.
Auchentoshan’s water for whisky production is taken from Loch Katrine in the Highlands, which is 35km north of the distillery. The visitor centre opened in 2004 and is one of Scotland’s most visited, thanks to the close proximity to Glasgow. The core whisky range was re-designed and re-branded in early 2008 and sales have increased accordingly, now regularly topping the two million bottles per year mark. Auchentoshan translates as ‘corner of the field’ from Gaelic.
Auchentoshan’s history
The distillery was officially granted a license and was founded in 1823 by John Bulloch. However, there is evidence that a distillery was operating on the same site from the late 1700s with one named Duntocher written about in 1817. At this time, Glasgow was surrounded by numerous distilleries but by the mid-1990s Auchentoshan was the last. Only Glenkinchie near Edinburgh and Auchentoshan were left in the entirity of the Lowland region for almost 20 years afterwards. The craft distilling boom has changed that with many distilleries popping up including a couple of urban distilleries in Glasgow itself.
The distillery has changed ownership on several occasions in its history, including a spell under Scottish brewing giants Tennents during the 1960s and legendary distillers Morrison Bowmore, who took control in 1984. They were subsequently taken over by Japanese drinks company, Suntory in 1994. They remain the current owners under the revised named of Suntory Global Spirits and have radically turned around the distillery’s fortunes by actively raising the profile and made its whisky considerably more popular.
- How to pronounce Auchentoshan? ock-en-tosh-an
- Country: Scotland
- Region: Lowlands
- Founded: 1823
- Current owners: Suntory Global Spirits
- Production capacity per year: 2.5 million litres
- Mash tun: 7.05 ton stainless steel
- Washbacks: 9
- Stills: 3
- Visitor centre: Yes
Auchentoshan Distillery
By Dalmuir, Clydebank
Glasgow
G81 4SJ
tel – +44(0)1389 878 561
www.auchentoshan.co.uk
Did you know?
Auchentoshan was bombed during the Second World War, however the distillery struggled on with production. One bomb crater is now a pond, from which the water to condense alcohol vapours back to spirit is taken.
Auchentoshan
