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As you’re reading this blog and are possibly a customer of Just Whisky Auctions, it’s a fair assumption that you’ve visited more than a few distilleries and taken their tour.

That being the case, your guide almost certainly paused to point out the malt mill. More often than not, it’s a Porteus mill, though you might see the occasional Boby and even the odd Buhler mill.

But if it’s painted in a distinctive, unshowy shade of dark red then what you looked at was a Porteus mill (we’ll come back to the Boby mills shortly).  They’re sturdy little things, standing four-square in the mill room, ready to receive another load of malt, quiet occupants of an unobtrusive corner of the distillery that just get on with their job in a modest and understated way.

If the guide didn’t pause and point it out, a Porteus mill would never shout or draw attention to itself, you feel; happy to do an honest day’s work and then await the next consignment of malt to be turned to grist.

At this point, your guide quite probably explained that the mill was quite old and that the Porteus firm had gone out of business, outlived by the durability and simple excellence of a product so good and so enduring that it broke the company.

So well made that they required relatively little maintenance and with little or no demand for new machines both Porteus and Boby closed down many years ago.  They were outlived by their equipment and undone by the slump in whisky production of the 1970s and 80s and the ruthless consolidation of the brewing industry, meaning fewer and fewer small independent breweries.  Sadly, quite a few mills will have been scrapped which, until recently, hasn’t been a problem.

But it’s worth taking a closer look at these tough and functional looking machines and, if you do, there’s a good chance you’ll see a modest plaque somewhere on the side carrying a telephone number and the name Ronnie Lee.

Some years ago I noticed this on Jura and then, shortly afterwards, at Tobermory distillery and then again at a number of Speyside distilleries. So I began asking various guides ‘Who is this Ronnie Lee?’  No one knew – but as soon as I asked some real production people (as opposed to the friendly guides who for the most part are essentially a PR front and equipped with a marketing script) the pieces of a fascinating story fell quickly into place.

Well it turns out that, in a world of tattooed, bearded Brand Ambassadors with their hipster tweed caps, and rock-star Distillery Managers who jet from whisky show to whisky show, Ronnie Lee is a quiet hero. Yet he doesn’t give master classes, doesn’t blog and he’s definitely not part of the fashionable crowd that increasingly follow whisky these days.  But he – together, these days with son Gareth - are the men who mends the mills.  And, if you think about it, without their expertise there would be no whisky.

Working from their modest base near Chepstow, they run Euro Mechanical Engineering working as freelance millwrights.  As such, they spend most of their working days life in maintaining, servicing and, on occasion, restoring Porteus and Boby mills for the brewing and distilling industry.

Their surroundings are as far removed from whisky’s new image of sophistication, glamour and luxury as you might conceivably imagine, yet they carry out vital work as one of an elite group of engineers who keep these vintage machines in working order. Unsung and unheralded, they are essential to the smooth and effective operation of much of the distilling industry, here and internationally.

In fact, they work for Diageo, Chivas Brothers, Glenmorangie, Highland Distillers and Ian MacLeod Distillers, as well as a number of independent breweries and distilleries as far flung as Sweden, Italy and even the USA. If you want a vintage malt mill, or need one restored, Ronnie Lee is the man you call.

And that brings us to a fascinating twist in the story.  Some years ago, Ronnie acquired all the plans for the Boby mill when that firm closed down. With access to that unique archive, it was Euro Mechanical Engineering’s proud boast that, in theory, they could build a brand new Boby-style mill from scratch based on the original blueprints but updated for greater efficiency and cleaner running.

But why would you, when the originals have a working life of a century or more? Well, basically, they are desperately hard to find and with new distilleries and small breweries being built at an unprecedented pace, there’s a need for equipment of established high quality with a proven heritage.  Even the shiniest of new state-of-the-art distilleries may be discreetly supplied by a 50 or 60 year old machine which, come to think of it, is something quite amazingly heart-warming. But there just aren’t enough to go around.

And so it has come to pass that a new Boby mill has indeed been built and is now heading off to its eventual home in a soon-to-be-opened whisky distillery (which is another story, which we’ll come to in a moment).

The mill, of 4-5 tons capacity, is the product of 12 month’s work by Ronnie and Gareth Lee. The original design has been improved, Gareth telling me that while the exterior closely resembles an old-style Boby, the gears have been done away with, the roller bearings switched to a spherical shape and a double-edged synchronized belt fitted. If, like me, that’s double Dutch to you, I’m assured it means cleaner running (no oil), greater energy efficiency and potentially faster running speeds if desired by the operator. Everything has been built from the ground up with a local foundry providing custom-made castings for the bearings, which were then hand finished by Gareth.

But who has commissioned this work and where is this marvel of skillfully modernized vintage engineering to be found? Let’s hear it for the new owners, the family-owned and independent Ian Macleod Distillers, well-known for their Glengoyne and Tamdhu single malts, the imaginative reopening of Rosebank and their Edinburgh Gin brand.  They are also partners in the proposed Laggan Bay project which, if everything goes to plan, will be Islay’s twelfth distillery.

So the Boby is destined for a Hebridean home? Well, no. In fact, it is travelling around 4,000 miles to Una, a town in the southwestern Himachal Pradesh state in northern India where Macleod Distillers are currently building on a greenfield site.  The distillery, expected to be operational later this year, is designed to produce around 1.0m litres of spirit annually of Indian whisky.

Beyond that, Ian Macleod were tight-lipped though my own lengthy on-line research turned up an Environmental Impact report from the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board.  From that very comprehensive document we learn that “The project proposes to produce Malt Spirit, part of it matured for at least 2 years and above years for supplies to IMFL [that’s Indian-Made Foreign Liquor] industry for blending in various proportions and part of the matured malt spirit will be matured for more than 3 years to be called as Whisky under International norms and bottled as Indian Single Malt whisky for the Indian and export market”.   Indian Single Malt Whisky from Ian Macleod Distillers – that’s something not yet widely reported and quite a feather in the cap of relatively small independent Scottish distillers.

According to the report, the total cost is approximately £5m – quite the bargain by UK standards. 
Naturally I enquired as to the price of the mill and naturally, and quite correctly, Gareth Lee would not be drawn into the specifics. But he did hint that if you wanted one for your project you could expect to wait some 12 months or so (they’re busy) and expect to write a cheque for rather more than  £100,000.

So this is a mill that grinds slowly but is exceeding fine; evidently a labour of love and a source of great pride – and why not, because as Gareth assured me, “it will be working long after I’m in the ground.”  I wonder if in fifty or more years curious visitors will be regaled with the story – I certainly hope so.

Their surroundings are as far removed from whisky’s new image of sophistication, glamour and luxury as you might conceivably imagine

In our inaugural Blog entry, Guest writer Ian Buxton explores the seemingly unglamorous distillery mill. The unsung hero of whisky distilleries.

The Distillery Mill

Historical

We've compiled a list of codes to make it easy to find out what whisky is inside each bottle from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The first digits relate to the distillery, and the numbers after the dot (.) relate to the number of the release, from that distillery. Sometimes you'll see a letter preceding both -that relates to the type of liquid in the bottle, for example a "G" means it's a Grain whisky.

SMWS Bottle Codes

Useful Info

We're excited to partner with Rothes Sports Development Group this month to raise money for a great cause. The charity was formed in 2025 to enchance local health, welfare and sporting opportunities in and around Rothes, Moray.

Rothes Sports Development Charity Auction

Charity Auction

In this intriguing piece, Gavin D. Smith delves into the relationship between taxes and the Scotch Whisky industry.

1823 EXCISE ACT

july_whisky_auction_live_now_2809955_389131.webp

Entry Deadline: 5th August

Buy & Sell with the World's Most Trusted Whisky Auction

This distillery exclusive bottle of Glendronach has been hand-filled at the distillery straight from a Pedro Ximenez Puncheon at cask strength. The spirit was distilled on the 6th of December 2005 and bottled in 2020.

Glendronach 2005 2020 Hand Filled Single Cask No.1938

Official Bottling

Pedro Ximenez

The crown jewel in the Brown Forman Scotch empire started life in 1826 near the village of Forgue in Aberdeenshire. A perfect spot, surrounded by farms eager to sell their barley to the distillery, which continues to this day. GlenDronach had an unsettled 90 years or so, with various owners and the menace of fire damaging the distillery. In 1960, William Teacher & Sons made the wise choice to purchase the distillery, which already had a reputation for using sherry casks.

This only grew when an expansion to 4 stills was completed in 1966, despite being a rather unsightly extension amongst all the traditional buildings. A period of closure in the 90s to this day is being felt amongst supporting its age statements before new owners decided to sell to the Billy Walker consortium. Through his use of casks and special releases, a new generation fell in love with the whisky. An expanding range has been cut back by Brown Forman, who paid a sizeable fee to become the new owners of the distillery along with BenRiach and Glenglassaugh.

Glendronach

Highlands

Full Size

glendronach_2005_2020_hand_filled_single_cask_no1938_667899.webp

70 cl

57.9%

2020 Hand Filled Single Cask No.1938

Glendronach 2005

glendronach_2005_2020_hand_filled_single_cask_no1938_2754068_105048.webp

glendronach_2005_2020_hand_filled_single_cask_no1938_2754069_155440.webp

May 2025

speyside_glenlivet_16_years_old_exceptional_cask_100_proof_batch_7_2747706_894259.webp

57.1%

Exceptional Cask 100 Proof Batch #7

Speyside (Glenlivet) 16 Years Old

speyside_glenlivet_16_years_old_exceptional_cask_100_proof_batch_7_2753526_250741.webp

speyside_glenlivet_16_years_old_exceptional_cask_100_proof_batch_7_2753527_650654.webp

glenallachie_13_years_old_oloroso_cask_matured_distillery_exclusive.jpg

700ml

55.7%

Oloroso Cask Matured (Distillery Exclusive)

Glenallachie 13 Years Old

glenallachie_13_years_old_oloroso_cask_matured_distillery_exclusive_2753624_199151.webp

glenallachie_13_years_old_oloroso_cask_matured_distillery_exclusive_2753625_496332.webp

glenallachie_13_years_old_oloroso_cask_matured_distillery_exclusive_2753630_614312.webp

glenallachie_13_years_old_oloroso_cask_matured_distillery_exclusive_2753631_629934.webp

blair_castle_scotch_whisky_1833_1841_rebottled_1932_2808586_480464.webp

Not stated.

61.36%

1841 (Rebottled 1932)

Blair Castle Scotch Whisky 1833

blair_castle_scotch_whisky_1833_1841_rebottled_1932_2808587_783841.webp

springbank_36_years_old_1965_2001_local_barley_cask_no8_2803113_477792.webp

47.6%

2001 Local Barley Cask No.8

Springbank 36 Years Old 1965

springbank_36_years_old_1965_2001_local_barley_cask_no8_2803114_471366.webp

Slight bubbling to label.

port_ellen_1981_feis_ile_2008_2808906_192408.webp

54.7%

Feis Ile 2008

Port Ellen 1981

port_ellen_1981_feis_ile_2008_2808907_506859.webp

Minor marks to box.

ardbeg_31_years_old_1974_2006_single_cask_no4989_2807743_343515.webp

50.7%

2006 Single Cask No.4989

Ardbeg 31 Years Old 1974

ardbeg_31_years_old_1974_2006_single_cask_no4989_2807744_670214.webp

north_british_60_years_old_single_grain_scotch_whisky_2808603_135265.webp

50.6%

Single Grain Scotch Whisky

North British 60 Years Old

north_british_60_years_old_single_grain_scotch_whisky_2808604_265888.webp

macallan_33_years_old_1977_crystal_decanter_silver_seal_1_of_1_2803998_062768_159506_953733_506554.webp

90cl

2005 Silver Seal |  French Crystal Decanter (1 of 1)

Highland Park 31 Years Old 1974

highland_park_31_years_old_1974_2005_silver_seal_french_crystal_decanter_1_of_1_2808579_443164.webp

highland_park_31_years_old_1974_2005_silver_seal_french_crystal_decanter_1_of_1_2808580_483407.webp

tamdhu_26_years_old_1970_1996_signatory_vintage_sherry_cask_no373_2809757_725755.webp

51.5%

1996 Signatory Vintage | Sherry Cask No.373

Tamdhu 26 Years Old 1970

tamdhu_26_years_old_1970_1996_signatory_vintage_sherry_cask_no373_2809758_649671.webp

bowmore_40_years_old_1970_signatory_vintage_cask_strength_collection_096154_079699.webp

51.5% vol

Signatory Vintage Cask Strength Collection (No.4686)

Bowmore 40 Years Old 1970

bowmore_40_years_old_1970_signatory_vintage_cask_strength_collection_no4686_2809787_956676.webp

bowmore_40_years_old_1970_signatory_vintage_cask_strength_collection_no4686_2809788_406216.webp

macallan_43_years_old_1965_2008_carn_mor_celebration_of_the_cask_no2114_2765556_787529.webp

54.1%

2008 Carn Mor Celebration of the Cask No.2114

Macallan 43 Years Old 1965

macallan_43_years_old_1965_2008_carn_mor_celebration_of_the_cask_no2114_2808797_045699.webp

macallan_43_years_old_1965_2008_carn_mor_celebration_of_the_cask_no2114_2808798_537141.webp

macallan_18_years_old_1976.jpg

Macallan 18 Years Old 1976

macallan_18_years_old_1976_2809897_590125.webp

macallan_18_years_old_1976_2809898_774669.webp

port_ellen_27_years_old_6th_release.jpg

54.2%

6th Release

Port Ellen 27 Years Old 1978

port_ellen_27_years_old_1978_6th_release_2808909_673948.webp

port_ellen_27_years_old_1978_6th_release_2808910_163065.webp

bowmore_30_years_old_1989_2021_annual_release_047182.webp

45.1%

2020 Annual Release

Bowmore 30 Years Old 1989

bowmore_30_years_old_1989_2020_annual_release_2806864_819942.webp

bowmore_30_years_old_1989_2020_annual_release_2806865_165007.webp

ledaig_32_years_old_1972_2004_vintage_release_2807736_551784.webp

48.5%

2004 | Vintage Release

Ledaig 32 Years Old 1972

ledaig_32_years_old_1972_2004_vintage_release_2807737_075504.webp

balvenie_30_years_old_901383.webp

47.3%

Balvenie 30 Years Old

balvenie_30_years_old_2807928_609588.webp

balvenie_30_years_old_2807929_189898.webp

pappy_van_winkle_15_years_old_family_reserve_2021_805450.webp

75 cl

53.5%

Family Reserve (2021)

Pappy Van Winkle 15 Years Old

pappy_van_winkle_15_years_old_family_reserve_2021_2809849_899651.webp

pappy_van_winkle_15_years_old_family_reserve_2021_2809850_585067.webp

Minor marks to label

glenlivet_1940_gm_george_jgsmith_1980s_442602.jpg

G&M George & J.G.Smith (1980s)

Glenlivet 1940

glenlivet_1940_gm_george_jgsmith_1980s_2806895_894311.webp

glenlivet_1940_gm_george_jgsmith_1980s_2806896_813671.webp

Minor crease to front label

ardbeg_10_years_old_mor_1st_edition_285933.webp

4.5Litre

57.3%

Mor 1st Edition

Ardbeg 10 Years Old

ardbeg_10_years_old_mor_1st_edition_2807906_783464.webp

ardbeg_10_years_old_mor_1st_edition_2807907_828040.webp

macallan_copper_spirit_still_replica_219702_163069_908020_046451.webp

Balvenie Copper Spirit Still Replica

balvenie_copper_spirit_still_replica_2807263_011619.webp

balvenie_copper_spirit_still_replica_2806733_252869.webp

tobermory_32_years_old_1972_oloroso_sherry_cask_finish_597655.webp

49.5% vol

Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish

Tobermory 32 Years Old 1972

tobermory_32_years_old_1972_oloroso_sherry_cask_finish_2807923_125765.webp

tobermory_32_years_old_1972_oloroso_sherry_cask_finish_2807924_784664.webp

Marks to box

ardbeg_lord_of_the_isles_345204.webp

Ardbeg Lord Of The Isles

ardbeg_lord_of_the_isles_2807633_801829.webp

ardbeg_lord_of_the_isles_2807634_989227.webp

springbank_25_years_old_2019_limited_edition.jpg

2019 Limited Edition (19/32)

Springbank 25 Years Old

springbank_25_years_old_2019_limited_edition_1932_2808942_317661.webp

springbank_25_years_old_2019_limited_edition_1932_2808943_575561.webp

macallan_james_bond_60th_anniversary_release_decade_5_095104.webp

43.7%

Decade V

Macallan James Bond 60th Anniversary Release

macallan_james_bond_60th_anniversary_release_decade_v_2809624_687146.webp

macallan_james_bond_60th_anniversary_release_decade_v_2809625_659891.webp

scapa_29_years_old_1990_2020_distillery_exclusive_1st_fill_barrel_no5820_2809581_940250.webp

42.7%

2020 Distillery Exclusive | 1st Fill Barrel No.5820

Scapa 29 Years Old 1990

scapa_29_years_old_1990_2020_distillery_exclusive_1st_fill_barrel_no5820_2809582_959613.webp

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