INCHGOWER 1998

Inchgower will be an unfamiliar name to many, established in 1871, it’s a relatively old distillery in the coastal town of Buckie. Made up of equipment from the nearby disused Tochineal distillery, it remains in the hands of Alexander Wilson & Co. until the 1930s when the firm goes bankrupt. Unusually for a distillery in Scotland, rather than letting the distillery go to waste, the local council takes on ownership to preserve the site. Only a couple of years later, Arthur Bells & Sons, flush with the success of their blended whisky and in need of new distilleries, purchased Inchgower for £3000. The distillery is expanded in the 1960s, before a series of mergers and acquisitions leads to its current owners of Diageo. Today, it remains a key component of blends and is deployed in Johnnie Walker, however as a single malt is it very scarce. Represented officially by the Flora & Fauna range, there’s very little else of Inchgower out there except the occasional independent bottling. For such a ridiculously short fermentation time of 46 hours, Inchgower packs flavour into its distillate thanks to its steep lyne arms.