Please note that this section of Malt Madness focuses on Scotland in particular.
The Lex-icon on the Malt Maniacs site provides a complete overview of all malt whisky distilleries
in the rest of the world . Until well after the year 2000, the total number of active MALT whisky
distilleries in Scotland was still much larger than that of the entire rest of the world put together.
Thanks to many new small projects (mainly in Europe and the US) that situation has now changed.
As far as grain whisky is concerned - that's an entirely different topic...
 
If you want to know more about Scotland and its many malt whisky distilleries, stick around...
Below you can find an overview of all active and recently closed distilleries in Scotland. Apart from
the name of the distillery (which links to a more extensive profile with background information and
tasting notes) the overview includes some additional details. These include a 'ranking' (one to five
stars, signifying my enjoyment of the malts that were produced at that distillery), the year that the
distillery was founded, the status of the distillery (active, mothballed or closed), the region where
the distillery is located (Speyside, Highlands, Lowlands, Islay and Campbeltown) and finally the
ownership of the distillery. The 'Top 10' at the right provides an overview of the 10 malt whisky
distilleries in Scotland that I love the most - at least at the moment. This doesn't necessarily mean
that I feel that these ten distilleries have always made the very best Scotch malt whisky; just that
at the moment these distilleries produce the most interesting malts at the most attractive prices.

This list contains all the (legal) malt whisky distilleries in Scotland that have
been active since +/- 1975. Hundreds of other distilleries that were active
in the 18th, 19th and 20th century are not listed, simply because the odds
of ever finding a (genuine) bottle of the whisky are astronomically slim.
"Antique' bottles appearing at auctions and on eBay are usually dodgy.
 
Speaking of astronomically slim - to help the (male) readers of this page
pass the time a little more comfortable while they wait for the +/- eighty
other distillery profiles to be finished, I've included a liquid pin-up at the
right. After reading everything on this page you deserve a little break...
 
OK, now you've enjoyed yourself long enough; time to bugger off to one
of the distillery profiles or another section of Malt Madness. Unless you
require some further instructions about how to interpret the overload
of information on this page, of course. Please, allow me to clarify the
meaning of the data in the six columns of the Distillery Data Overview;

Distillery = simple, the (current, 'official') name of the distillery
Ranking = my purely personal feelings, translated into a star system
Founded = the year the distillery is claimed to have been founded
Status = Active (in production), mothballed (restart possible) or closed
Region = the Scottish whisky region where the distillery is located
Ownership = the parent company or individual owning the distillery
 
I feel that two of these criteria require a little elaboration.
First of all the 'status' of a distillery. I've tried to make the overview
a little more accessible by colour-coding the entries. The 'ghosted'
entries signify closed distilleries, while the fresh green names on the
list represent 'upstarts' that have recently begun producing whisky.
However, the borders are not always clearly defined. When a closed
distillery was demolished (like Saint Magdalene), it will never produce
whisky again - the buildings and/or equipment were destroyed. But
if a distillery is mothballed (like Caperdonich, Glen Keith or Imperial)
there's a chance it will be revived later. There's also a grey area with
distilleries with intermittent production like Scapa and Glen Scotia.
The removal of a special set of stills from a building where one or
more sets of stills remain active counts as closure of the 'distillery'
where a malt by that name (for example Mosstowie) was produced.

Just when I had reached my 'Hamstergeddon' goal in 2006, this website crashed.
I had been using the old 'Distillery Data' page to track my progress, so now my 'madministration' was a mess.
Fortunately, I was also struck with a sobering insight around the same time. The character and 'quality' of a particular malt whisky is influenced by so many factors that a 'brand' that released the most beautiful bottlings in the 1990's could be bottling mediocre drivel in the third millennium - and vice versa. That insight destroyed the foundation beneath the 'still scores' that were part of the old DD page. I had operated under the mistaken impression that tasting six expressions would allow me to decide once and for all if a certain malt whisky should be on my future shopping lists or not. By now I realised that the whisky world is constantly evolving and a 'brand' is only as good as it most recent bottlings - I would never be able to close my 'little black book' with tasting notes for good...

The concept of 'ranking' distilleries also deserves an explanation.
During 'A Decade of Heavy Dramming' I was frantically trying to
get at least six expressions from every active distillery in Scotland
on my 'Track Record'. The motivation for this monomaniacal effort
came from a delusion. For many years I honestly believed I would
be able to say something 'definitive' about the quality of the malt
whisky that was produced at a certain distillery, if only I sampled
enough different expressions. At the time six seemed enough...

I realised that this made the 'definitive' still scores in the old 'distillery data' section pointless.
I needed a new, 'dynamic' system that would allow me to express my feelings about factors like batch variation, upward or
downward trends, quality/price ratio, etcetera. So, I came up with the (purely personal) 'rankings' that you can find in the list
of Scottish distilleries. The minimum score is one star, awarded for simply releasing a single malt in the first place; Deanston
or Loch Lomond may not be my favorite distilleries, but I still enjoy their malt whiskies more than the average blend. If some
expressions of that malt whisky are actually any good, the distillery earns up to four more stars. These rankings are dynamic,
so increasing prices while downgrading the quality of the product has pushed a distillery like Ardbeg quickly from my Top 10.

My purely personal Top 10 distilleries at the top of this page shows my current ten favorite distilleries in Scotland.
However, let me be the first to stress that it's purely personal and relatively arbitrary. The top 10 is based on the selection
of malts that I've tried over the years. Because I haven't tried an equal number of bottlings from all distilleries, this Top 10
isn't a representative representation of reality - just a reflection of my experiences so far. The rankings can be interpreted
as the probability of me spending my hard earned cash on other bottlings from that particular distillery;
 
***** = Absolutely - Official and independent bottlings perform superbly, almost without exception.
**** = Very probably - Edutainment in a bottle; almost a guarantee for an interesting and enjoyable experience.
*** = Likely - Even an 'average' Scotch malt whisky is still a very fine dram. These still beat the Johnnie Walker Black.
** = Unlikely - With so many excellent and (relatively) affordable alternatives available, why bother?
* = Highly unlikely - After sampling at least six expressions, I've given up hope for the foreseeable future.
 
These rankings are dynamic, so the introduction of a new series of good, affordable OB's can boost a distillery's ranking.

As long as you keep in mind that these rankings are purely personal, they could provide a relative beginner with some guidance in the jungle
of available brands and bottlings. After sampling a dozen different malt whiskies you should be able to determine if our tastes are similar.
If they are, you can use my scores and rankings - and perhaps the Beginner's Guide to Single Malt Scotch Whisky - as a simple guideline.
If they are not, I suggest you check out WhiskyFun by Serge Valentin for a slightly different perspective on the whisky world. This DD section
focuses exclusively on Scotland. Check out the Lex-icon on Malt Maniacs for information about malt whisky distilleries in the rest of the world.
 

This 'Distillery Data' section provides profiles for
all active malt whisky distilleries in Scotland.
Malt Madness offers profiles for a few new projects
and silent distilleries as well, but this is not an
overview of every Scotch whisky distillery that
has ever existed. That means that a distillery that
was closed more than forty years ago is not listed
here. Bottles would be impossible to find anyway...
 
If the name you're looking for isn't listed in the big
overview below, you could try the 'brands' page; it
provides an overview of the many other names you
might encounter on the label of a whisky bottle, as
well as the names of many independent bottlers.
This section also contains pages for the main malt
whisky regions; Speyside, the Highlands, etcetera.

The Springbank distillery also produces the
more heavily peated 'Longrow' malts, as well
as a new spirit under the name 'Hazelburn'.
Once again, these are second-hand names
of silent distilleries in the Campbeltown area.