The story behind BenRiach - blog post from Whiskymagasinet

In the 1890s, the demand for whisky was huge. It was considered the safest investment safe investment for investors, and in Scotland, distillery building became a mania.

John Duff already owned the Longmorn distillery, which he had built in 1894, when in 1897 he began construction of Benriach, right next to Longmorn. Upon completion, the distillery was simply referred to as Longmorn no. 2. Both distilleries drew water from the same spring and were connected by a railroad that transported barley, coal, malt and casks between the distilleries.

As we all know, trees don't grow into the sky, and in the late 1800s the balloon burst, the whisky industry went dark and John Duff was declared bankrupt. One of the blender companies that helped force overproduction was Pattison, Elder & Company, better known as the 'Pattison Brothers'.

Their transactions involved selling the stock and then buying it back at a higher price.
And then they were sold again at an even higher price, and then bought back again. After this big crash, the industry was left with overproduction and excessive inventories that were completely out of harmony with demand. The huge stockpiles, combined with the poor British economy in the early 1900s, took a toll on the whisky industry. ¨

Part of the production apparatus was brought to a standstill and the number of distilleries dropped dramatically. Many were temporarily shut down, including BenRiach. It would be a full 65 years before BenRiach was back in production. However, the malting floors were still in use at BenRiach throughout the shutdown period. Barley was malted for production at Longmorn, in fact, until 1998.

Glenlivet Distillers Ltd bought the distillery in 1960, and after modernization, it was reopened in 1965, exactly 65 years after it was closed. exactly 65 years after it had been closed down due to the crisis in the whisky industry. In 1972, it was decided that BenRiach would also produce smoked whisky. A whisky that was exclusively intended to be used in the company's various blends.
In 1978, the Seagram Group bought a large chunk of the Scotch whisky industry, including BenRiach, and in 1985 the number of boiler sets was increased to two. It wasn't until as late as 1994 that the first BenRiach Single Malt came onto the market, when the owners launched the "Heritage Selection" with single malts from Longmorn, Glen Keith, Strathisla and Benriach.
In 1998, floor malting was discontinued and in 2002 the distillery closed completely.

BenRiach's revival
Pernod Ricard put the distillery up for sale in 2004, and several interested parties bid. Billy Walker ended up buying BenRiach together with his South African investors (Intra Trading), and it was the experienced whisky icon Billy Walker who realized the distillery's potential. the distillery's potential. Along with the production facilities, Billy took over a large stock of old whisky from both the 1970s and 1980s. Production started immediately after the acquisition in 2004, and in September the first casks were filled with freshly distilled spirit.

Billy's great expertise is in selecting casks and putting them together. He started by creating different vattings and bottlings of both smoked and unsmoked single malt. It was an instant success. The following year, a wide range of single cask bottlings of whiskies from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The success of BenRiach continued for the next ten years. A wide variety of single malts were brought to the market. A visitor center was opened at the distillery and in 2012, floor malting was restarted. In 2009 BenRiach was named 'Whisky Distiller of the Year, and in 2015 as Global Whisky Distiller of the Year.

Brown Forman joins the team
As co-owners of the "The BenRiach Distillery Company", Billy Walker had a couple of South African partners who in 2015 wanted to retire from the Scotch whisky industryindustry, and so the search began for new owners for the small distillery group. It turned out to be very quick, and in the same year the American spirits group Brown-Forman Corporation took over the group consisting of the three distilleries; GlenDronach, Glenglassaugh and BenRiach.

The distillery's equipment
BenRiach is equipped with a 5.8-ton mash tun, eight washbacks (fermentation vats) and the distillery has two boiler sets. The maximum capacity is around 2.8 million liters annually, but they don't produce that much spirit at all.

The whisky from BenRiach
Since Billy Walker took over in 2004, a variety of exciting whiskies have been bottled, many of which have come in very small quantities.

In 2021, BenRiach launched their new range, created by Master Blender Rachel Barrie. The inspiration for both content and appearance is drawn from the history and traditions of the distillery. The bottle and label design is inspired by a 30-year-old bottling.