Benromach
Story
We are a traditional distillery owned by a family of whisky-lovers intent on reviving the lost flavour of Speyside whiskies from the days before commercial maltings.
We keep things simple: a handful of distillers relying entirely on their expertise and senses to make the finest handmade whisky.
Our four ingredients are barley, water, yeast and a human touch.
Our processes honour the knowledge and experience used to make Speyside whiskies decades ago.
Why?
Because at Benromach we believe making whisky by hand delivers genuine character.
Our handmade Process
We are proud to have revived the lost Speyside style, whereby we malt our barley with just a whisper of peat smoke.
Ground into grist in our four-roller ‘Boby’ Mill, our barley gives our whiskies their distinctive character; robust and delicious.
We bring the mash down by hand, meaning our Distillers hand control the flow of water from the local Chapelton Spring and grist into the Mash tun until full, before constantly monitoring to control the speed of the rakes and water temperature.
This attention to detail ensures a natural extraction of sugars from the grist to create the malty, cereal flavours that form the base of our silvery new-make spirit.
Our long fermentation process lasts between three and five days and takes place in our larch washbacks.
Unusually, we use brewer’s as well as distiller’s yeast to generate a more complete fermentation that enables more complex flavours to develop.
Our expert distillers hand-measure our yeast by sight and sprinkle it into the washbacks by hand.
These traditional techniques make sure each batch of our whisky exhibits the genuine character of those who made it.
Double distillation through two bespoke copper pot stills creates a medium bodied spirit suitable for variable lengths of maturation. The wash still is ‘settled’ by hand, using the expertise and experience of our distillers and a traditional water test used to gauge purity. The skill of our dedicated distillers is especially critical when it comes to ‘cut’ the spirit; the moment when they consider the spirit from each distillation to be of the highest quality. This ‘sweet heart’ of the run then goes to spend years maturing in our first-fill casks, slowly becoming Benromach single malt.
Good casks are crucial for creating good whisky. And most of the flavour and character comes from using oak casks for the first time after being seasoned with bourbon or Sherry. The quality, specification and provenance of our casks play a vital role in how the flavours develop over time. The maturation process is tightly controlled, with the whiskies regularly monitored to maintain excellent quality standards.
After hand-filling a cask with new-make Benromach spirit, it then takes its place in one of our traditional dunnage-style warehouses which maintain consistent temperatures ideal for maturing single malt whisky.
Ingredients
Barley
Our Scottish barley is grown locally and malted with a little peat smoke to our exact specifications.
Water
Our pure soft water rises in the Chapelton Spring in the Romach Hills, just a couple of miles behind our distillery.
Yeast
We employ traditional use of both brewer’s and distiller’s yeast to make our single malt whisky.
People
Our distillers rely entirely on their expertise and senses to make a Speyside whisky with a subtle smoky character.
Our history
Benromach distillery was built in 1898 in Forres, near Elgin.
In 1993 the distillery was acquired by the Urquhart family keen to revive the lost Speyside style using malted barley to give just a whisper of peat smoke. This process goes back over a century when all malting in Speyside would have topped up fires with cuts of peat when supplies of coal ran low, gifting the whiskies a distinct character.
When the distillery was reopened by Prince Charles in 1998, it signalled the rediscovery of a lost style of Speyside single malt.
We believe this subtly smoky character adds depth to our spirit, enhances the complexity and flavour profile of our core range of whiskies.
And to provide drinkers with variations on a theme, whiskies presented in our Contrasts range are limited edition, single batch or single cask releases born from our natural instinct to experiment. Each release showcases the result of a new process, barley type or casks to provide whisky enthusiasts with something new to explore.
Our family
Benromach is owned by Gordon & MacPhail, a family-owned spirits company based in Elgin, Morayshire.
Established as a grocery business in 1895, Gordon & MacPhail is renowned for maturing and bottling some of the world’s oldest and rarest single malt whiskies.
For more information visit: gordonandmacphail.com
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