The History of Glenkinchie Distillery
From the rich agricultural countryside of East Lothian comes Glenkinchie, the Classic Malt of the Lowlands. As the distillery is so close to the Capital, it is known as The Edinburgh Malt.
East Lothian was the birthplace of the 18th century agricultural revolution in Scotland which was to change the landscape in order to provide better feed for livestock and produce for markets in neighbouring towns and cities.
The golden barley was destined for another market too. By 1837 local farmers, John and George Rate had become the first recorded licence holders of Glenkinchie Distillery, malting the barley grown in their adjoining fields and mashing it in pure water from springs in the Lammermuir hills to produce one of Scotlands Classic Malt whiskies.
John & George Rate ceased production at Glenkinchie in 1853 but the premises were opened again in 1890 when a consortium of brewers, blenders and wine merchants from Edinburgh and Leith reformed the Glenkinchie Distillery Co Ltd.
The new owners rebuilt the premises but retained Glenkinchies 2 Lampglass Stills, the classic Lowland type of Still, which are the largest stills to produce any of Scotlands malt whiskies.
In 1914, the company was one of five lowland malt whisky distilleries to form Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd to concentrate their resources during a time of recession. Scottish Malt Distillers then became part of United Distillers and subsequently, part of Diageo.
Government restrictions to conserve barley for food supplies during the First World War meant that Glenkinchie, along with all other malt whisky distilleries, ceased production from 1917-19. Despite similar restrictions affecting other distilleries during the Second World War, Glenkinchie was able to produce smal quantities of whisky each year from 1941-45.
In the 1950s the distillery manager also farmed the adjoining land and the Aberdeen Angus cattle flourished on the nutrituous by products of malting and mashing, winning championships at agriculture shows in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Smithfield.
The malting floors at Glenkinchie closed in 1968 and the manager at that time, Alistair Munro began collecting artefacts such as old records and advertising material relating to the Scotch whisky industry. By the early 70s the former malting floors housed a museum dedicated to malt distilling and within 10 years visitors were able to tour the distillery and the museum. A main feature of the museum was a 20ft one-sixth scale model of a distillery which had been on display in the Palace of Industry at the British Empire Exhibition in 1923-25. To this day the model still has pride of place in the museum at the visitor centre.
Over the years there have been substantial investments in the distillery and a new visitor centre which welcomes thousands of visitors every year from all over the world.