When a whisky sample bottle made it onto our desk back in June, as usual we were particularly keen to give it a taste. This one was a bit different and a bit special however. Like Dumbarton and North of Scotland Distilleries we looked at in our previous blog posts, it came from one of Scotland’s lost distilleries. But on top of that it came from a distillery that we (and many others with whisky knowledge) had to double take. Garnheath Distillery is one of Scotland’s lesser known and we had to do a little digging. Not only is it lost, it’s history as a distillery was a rather short one with only 21 years distilling whisky. Located in the Airdrie region of Scotland, a region in which whisky distillation is not entirely synonymous, Garnheath distillery was a very modern, cutting edge distillery when it was built back in 1965. And it was not alone on the site.
The Inver House Distillers group from the USA looked to launch a new blended whisky venture in Scotland and chose the disused Moffat Paper Mill on the outskirts of Airdrie as their site and set about converting the complex to include not just Garnheath but Glen Flager and Killyloch whisky brands. Grain whisky at the former and malt whisky in latter two. Also on the site, the company constructed warehouses, bottling plants and the Moffat Maltings, keeping the whole process of distillation on one site.
Garnheath like so many of Scotland’s grain distilleries thrived through the boom period of the 1960s but suffered greatly during the following decline and over-capacity of grain spirit. The Inver House group had to make major changes and after just 21 short years of production, the Garnheath Distillery was closed in 1986 and demolished soon after. The other facilities on site also suffered the same fate during the same period. All that remains of the Garnheath legacy is a swathe of warehouses. Inver House as a company still operates and thrives today and still has vested interest and ownership of other distilleries in Scotland. But for Garnheath it remains a lost distillery. As for the whisky, such a short span in production means it is really very rare and something new only appears very occasionally.
Luckily we still have in stock a very special and very rare Garnheath 41 year old (1974) from our friends at the independent bottling company Morrison & MacKay Ltd. It’s not quite like anything we’ve tried before and it is an absolutely fantastic dram. You can read more about this dram in detail in our recent tasting blog of the Garnheath 41 Year Old Carn Mor.
We have a very limited number of bottles left in stock of this superb single grain whisky from the lost Garnheath distillery. We doff our cap to the bottling company behind this one – Morrison and Mackay- they have awoken this ‘lost’ whisky and presented something very, very good indeed!
Buy online here: £378.40
Details
Bottling by Morrison & MacKay | Cask Number: 313235 | 144 bottles | Alcohol: 50.8% | Vol. 70cl
