The Dufftown distillery is located in the part of Speyside and
Banffshire that carries the same name: Dufftown. According to the
late Michael Jackson's geographical classification, other distilleries
in that area are Balvenie, Convalmore, Glendullan, Glenfiddich,
Mortlach and Pittyvaich - but not Banff itself, oddly enough.

Since 1985, Dufftown is in the hands of United Distillers (UDV) who merged with International Distillers and Vintners (IDV) in 1998 to form United Distillers and Vintners (UDV). UDV itself is owned by industry giant Diageo - Scotland's largest malt whisky producer.

Dufftown is a relatively 'low profile' brand within Diageo's
large portfolio; the latest proper official bottling I tried was
bottled around 1995. Dufftown is Diageo's 'powerhouse'
with the largest capacity of the dozens of distilleries that
the company owns. That being said, it only ranks at #12 of
all the distilleries in Scotland. It seems that Diageo owns
by far the largest number of distilleries in Scotland, but the
production capacity of their 'average' distillery is relatively
low compared to those of for example William Grant or,
say, the Edrington Group.
 
2008 Update:  Since I wrote those last words, Diageo has
found a way to put Dufftown's large capacity to good use;
the malt is now bottled as a 'Singleton' official bottling.

And to make it even more confusing: an older bottle could contain Auchroisk whisky. It's also owned by Diageo, who used the name 'Singleton' during the 1990's because the name Auchroisk was considered too hard to pronounce.
Obviously, this wasn't the problem with Dufftown, Glendullan and Glen Ord - so I guess it's just marketing...

Actually, whisky lovers on different continents can enjoy very different whiskies
under the name 'Singleton' these days. If you buy yourself a bottle of Singleton
in Europe it will actually be a Dufftown single malt whisky, but if you're buying
a bottle of Singleton in the USA it will contain Glendullan whisky while shoppers
in Asia receive a bottle of Glen Ord single malt whisky. Confusing, eh?

In 1933 Dufftown and Blair Athol were purchased by Arthur Bell & Sons Ltd. from Perth.
Since that moment Dufftown has been an important component of the famous Bell's blend.
The number of stills was doubled from two to four in 1974 and just five years later in 1979 two more stills were added, resulting in an overall production capacity of 4,000,000 litres of pure alcohol.
That makes Dufftown (roughly) the twelfth largest distillery in Scotland, measured in capacity.

Much like Deanston, the Dufftown distillery was not originally built
as a malt whisky distillery; it was converted from an old mill by the
Dufftown-Glenlivet Distillery Co. in 1896. Just one year later in
1897 Dufftown was acquired by MacKenzie & Co. who also owned
the Blair Athol distillery in Pitlochry to the south. They managed to
hold on despite the 'Pattison Crisis' that shook the whisky world.

1) Being named after the town itself, one might easily assume that it was also the first distillery to be set up in Dufftown. Well, it wasn't - Mortlach (1824), Glenfiddich (1887), Balvenie (1892) and Convalmore (1894) were all established earlier. Glendullan followed in 1898. The next distillery to be built was Pittyvaich in 1975. Unfortunately, that adventure ended in 1993 when the distillery closed again in 1993. William Grant's 'token' malt distillery Kininvie (1990) is located in Dufftown as well.

2) More trivia will be added later.
 

As (bad) luck would have it, many of the Dufftowns I tried were sampled under less than ideal 'administrative' conditions - either during the early 1990's before I started taking serious notes or at a festival or in Scotland being distracted by the manical behaviour and rantings of my fellow malt maniacs.

For example, the Dufftown-Glenlivet NAS (70 Proof, OB, Black & Red Label, Bottled Late 1970's, an unremarkable malt, 71 points) and the Dufftown-Glenlivet 8yo (70 Proof, 40%, OB, Black & Red Label, Bottled Early 1980's,  very light in style, 73 points) were sampled on Islay in 2005 and I only made rudementary notes on them.

Fortunately, I do have notes for the Dufftown-Glenlivet 'Over 8yo' (80 Proof, Bells OB, Black Label).
Nose: Creamy & well rounded. Coffee? A little sellery. Smoke. A nice dram, but not very expressive.
Taste: It seemed quite 'veggy' on the palate. A little bitter, but not unpleasantly so. A tad MOTR.
Some wood and tannins, drying out towards the finish. Once again: pleasant enough but not great.
Score: 76 points - Davin who enjoyed it with me in Glasgow went for 75 points.

I've enjoyed several bottles of the Dufftown 10yo (43%, OB, 100cl) during the early 1990's.
Nose: A sweet, oily aroma with hints of syrup and pepper. Full and malty - a blend-beater.
Taste: A soft, round taste with a long afterglow. Lack of taste development and complexity?
Score: 76 points - although the Bang-For-Your-Buck value is considerably higher.

The Dufftown 11yo (58%, Von Fass Cask Strength) was a sample sent by Olivier.
Nose: Fudge. Sweet and malty. Yeah, this is the 'Dufftown' profile I remember. Then a hint of lime.
The citrussy side grows stronger, evolving into stale, warm beer. Now the beer grows stronger.
Now it transforms into something dusty and fruity like dried apples. Very intersting development!
And it goes on. After ten minutes the organics move in. Wet pipe tobacco. Quite remarkable.
Oddly enough, it has sort of an allergic reaction to water, becoming metallic and sharp.
Taste: Sweet. Mouth coating. Once again, this profile reminds me a lot of the 10yo OB.
Hmmm. Now a hint of something smoky and fishy. Perfectly drinkable at cask strength.
Unfortunately, a splash of water breaks up the palate. The smooth finish grows dry and flat.
Score: 82 points - I had it somewhere in the lower 80's first, but then it slowly krept into the upper 80's thanks to the amazing development in the nose. However, its poor response to water pulled it down again.

Dufftown 12yo 1987 (43%, Chieftain's Choice, Bottled 2000?)
Nose: Started off with some malt and sherry. Hint of spices. A lot of volume at first, but disintegrates quickly.
Taste: Nice. Malty. Smooth start, then it gets a bit 'chewy'. Decent Burn. Not very complex, though.
Score: 73 points - a little too bitter in the finish for me...

Dufftown 15yo (43%, Flora & Fauna, Bottled +/- 1999, Kingfisher on the label)
Nose: Nice! Starts soft, but grows more complex and powerful with time. Sweet with hints of citrus.
Malty. Some smoke, but not as much as earlier drams.
Taste: Sweet & malty burn. Toffee. Coffee. Mocha? A hint of menthol?
Sherry and wood in the finish; a bit dry, a little gritty.
Score: 77 points - better than average, but ultimately not interesting enough to capture my imagination.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Dufftown Scotch whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.