Longmorn Distillery

One of Scotland's Few Distilleries to Never Stopped Production

Situated near Elgin, at the heart of Speyside, the distillery was built on the site of an old chapel in 1894, together with its neighbour Benriach, by John Duff and two associates, Charles Shirres and George Thomson. Ownership has changed several times and the number of stills increased too, since then. Pernod Ricard bought it via their purchase of the Seagram company in 2001.

Despite his good position within the whisky world in those days, John Duff was crippled by debts because of the great recession in the whisky industry at the end of the 19th century. He was forced to sell everything to pay his creditors. Among the candidates for buying the distillery, John Grant (from Glen Grant) through his company Hill Thomson & Co who marketed amongst others the "Something Special" blend.

In the early 1970's, Longmorn merged with the distillery "The Glenlivet" to create "The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd". The distillery doubled its production capacity in 1972 and again in 1974. The number of stills went from 4 to 8. Seagram purchased the distillery in 1977. Longmorn is one of the few distilleries who never stopped production, even getting through the grain shortages during WWII. A lot of the Longmorn capacity is sought after for blending which leaves not so much of this fine single malt to be bottled on its own. It’s most definitely worth a try if you haven’t tasted it before.

The distilleries belonging to "The Chivas and Glenlivet Group", part of Seagram. Were acquired by the French group Pernod-Ricard on 19 december 2001.