Pulteney Distillery

Pulteney’s story

For much of its history, Pulteney was the most northernly distillery on the UK mainland, lying just 18 miles (30km) south of John O’Groats – the UK’s northernmost point. That changed with Wolfburn was established in Thurso in 2013. Pulteney is located on the outskirts of the north Highland town of Wick and is one of only two distilleries in Scotland to be named after a person, Sir William Johnstone Pulteney. Glen Grant is the other, if you are wondering.

Sir Pulteney was director of The British Fishing Society and the biggest name in the fishing industry in the early 1800s. The town of Wick used to carry his name – its previous title was Pulteneytown – until it merged with Wick Harbour on the opposite side of the river estuary in 1902. then it was officially named Wick. The current owners, Inver House Distillers, saw potential for its whisky in the growing single malt market and chose to promote this rather than fulfilling old blending contracts. By 2006, Old Pulteney had broken into the world’s Top 20 for single malt sales and despite the relatively low production capacity of 1.7 million litres per year it is the company’s best selling single malt.

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Pulteney’s history

The town of Wick grew from virtually nothing, thanks to the fishing industry in the early 1800s. By 1840, Wick was the ‘herring capital of Europe’ with over 1000 boats operating from its newly constructed harbour. Workers came from all over Scotland to work there and they drank a lot of whisky! The number of small illegal stills located in and around the town struggled to cope and in 1826 and following The Excise Act of 1823, one of these locals decided to build a legal still.

His name was James Henderson and he named the distillery Pulteney, after the influential Sir William Pulteney. It supplied the town with a peaty, salty style of whisky until the herring industry collapsed during the First World War. By the end of the 1920s, unemployment in Wick was high and alcohol consumption was even higher. In a bid to curb this behaviour, the town council (along with over 50 other councils throughout Scotland) decided to ban the sale of alcohol. As a result the distillery closed in 1930. The ban remained in place until 1939.

However, Pulteney did not immediately reopen and remained closed for over a decade. It was renovated and restarted in 1951 by a solicitor named Robert James ‘Bertie’ Cumming, who owned the Balblair Distillery – this is located further down the north east Highland coast near Tain. During the late 1950s the distillery was sold to Hiram Walker expanded further. The whisky produced there contributed significantly to major blends such as Ballantine’s. In 1961 Pulteney became part of Allied Breweries, which would later become Allied lyons and finally Allied Domecq. Pulteney struggled on through the difficult whisky crash of the 1980s while other remote distilleries were closed.

In 1995, the distillery was purchased by Inver House Distillers. They changed the name to Old Pulteney and decided to concentrate on the single malt market with the iconic Old Pulteney 12 years old expression launched for the first time a couple of years later in 1997. These decisions breathed new life into the ailing distillery and put it back on the whisky map. Since, it has gone from strength to strength and now boasts a multi award-winning core range, travel retail range and several limited edition bottlings.

• How to pronounce Pulteney? pool-ten-ee
• Country: Scotland
• Region: Highlands
• Founded: 1826
• Current owners: Inver House Distillers
• Production capacity per year: 1.7 million litres
• Mash tun: 7 ton stainless steel
• Washbacks: 7
• Stills: 2
• Visitor centre: Yes

Pulteney Distillery
Huddart Street
Wick
KW1 5BA
tel – +44(0)1955 602 371
www.oldpulteney.com

Did you know?

Old Pulteney supports the local environmental in conjunction with the North Highland Council. Excess thermal heat from the distillery is used to heat over 1500 local homes in Wick.