What's more: older whiskies aren't necessarily 'better' than younger bottlings.
In fact, once whiskies get past 'a certain age' (say 25 years) there's a fair
chance of the whisky being killed off
by the wood. Another danger that lurks
in the dark corners of warehouses around Scotland is 'de-whiskyfication'.
Once the ABV of a cask drops below 40% (due to breathing) it isn't whisky
anymore (at least from a
legal perspective), so they have to blend that
cask with one or more others if they ever want to sell the stuff as 'whisky'.
There are less than 100 active distilleries left in Scotland.
Sadly enough, the list of 'silent distilleries' that are now gone
is a lot longer. The history of whisky in Scotland
goes back
for well over three centuries. During that time, thousands of
distilleries have operated - although many of them were illegal
set-ups and not very sophisticated by today's standards.
That makes sense - most of the malt whisky produced by silent distilleries
has already served its main purpose in life: being drunk. (Hey, if you have
to have a purpose, that's not such a bad one, is it? ;-) Some collectors
own bottles from the 1900's and you may find a Ben Wyvis or Dumbarton
at an auction, but these are exceptions.
This makes these rarities far more interesting for collectors and historians
than for hard drinking malt maniacs like yours truly. However, if you are
interested in the history of
(long gone) distilleries I suggest you check
out Ulf Buxrud's website which has a comprehensive list of all malt whisky
distilleries in Scotland that were
lost between 1885 and 1945.
On this page I don't look further back than +/- 1975.
On the other hand, the whiskies from silent distilleries that were closed
relatively recently (Brora and Port Ellen) are still available today. As time
goes by and stocks diminish, the
prices of remaining casks will certainly
sky-rocket. That means it might be not such a bad idea to invest in a bottle if
you have the chance. These single malts will be increasingly hard to come by.
Anyway, let's get back to the topic of 'silent stills'. Based on my research so
far, I imagine some of these distilleries were closed simply because they were
unable to produce whisky
competitively. Many distilleries fell victim to one of
the industry's regular crises or the ongoing concentration / globalisation trend.
This concentration trend has led to further 'rationalisation' of the entire whisky
industry over the last few decades. It's not all dark and gloomy, though; on the
contrary! A number of whisky distilleries that had been mothballed during the
1990's (Benriach, Glencadam and Tullibardine) were restored to their former
glory and re-opened again at the beginning of the third millennium.
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However, most of the silent distilleries on this page were closed in the 1980's.
That means you may still be able to find the odd bottling of those at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, my
experiences with most of the malts from the distilleries that are listed here hardly made me feel nostalgic about 'the old days'. My encounters with single malts like Banff, Coleburn, Glenlochy, Glenugie and Kinclaith were
particulary underwhelming, but I have to add that I've only sampled one or two expressions from each of these distilleries so far. I suppose further research is required before I can make any solid claims. I decided I needed to
to try at least three expressions from any distillery before I give it a final 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down'. Based on the research so far, only a few of the silent distilleries listed here seem really worthy of the shedding of
salty tears and the crying of loud lamentations about their untimely demise.
However, 'concentration' sort of makes sense if you think about it.
Companies that owned five distilleries decided they could reach their business goals just as well with three or four tightly
operated distilleries. Often, the decision to close a distillery was an 'economical' one; many of these closures had little or nothing to do with the quality of the malt whisky that was produced there. I already mentioned Brora
and Port Ellen, but it seems they also knew what they were doing at Braes of Glenlivet and Saint Magdalene, for example. It's really too bad that most remaining stocks will be gone soon.
Some sources claim that in the 18th century most Highland families owned and operated their own (illegal) still. The vast majority of the remaining (legal) whisky distilleries in Scotland are in the hands of just a few large food & drink conglomerates. Some of the most important names in the industry are UDV (United Distillers and Vintners, part of Diageo), Pernod Ricard, Allied Distillers, Highland Distillers, Dewar's/Bacardi and Chivas/Seagram.
Anyway, to cut a long story short: this list of 'silent' distilleries is just an arbitrary selection.
I've excluded most distilleries that were closed before 1980. Given the rarity of existing
bottlings from these long gone distilleries, the street prices are often quite astronomical. New bottlings of the odd cask will be in their late twenties or early thirties when they are released, so prices are likely to exceed
the budget of the average malt maniac as well. With more than 80 distilleries still producting malt whisky I usually prefer to invest my money in living, breathing distilleries...
As you can see on my Hit List there's plenty to enjoy these days.
There seems to be little debate on the greatness of Brora and Port Ellen.
Everybody agrees that bottlings from these distilleries are usually
pretty good. Unfortunately, that
also means that many people are willing to pay a good price. In the 1990's it was still very possible to
wander into a small liquor store and stumble across a bottle of Brora or Port
Ellen for less than (the
equivalent of) 50 Euro's, but in the new millennium most releases command prices exceeding 100 Euro's.
That puts most of the latest releases out of the reach of bottom shelf dwellers like myself.
Fortunately,
there are some other closed (or mothballed) distilleries that don't enjoy the same degree of universal
admiration. The underdog position of Braes of Glenlivet (Braeval), Convalmore, Glenglassaugh and
Saint Magdalene is reflected in the prices they command. Especially with distilleries that closed
not too long ago the 'mark-up' you'll have to pay should be relatively modest.
Anyway, here are 'micro-profiles' for circa two dozen silent (and some recently re-opened) distilleries.
I've included some short tasting notes for three expressions from each distillery. Check out
my Track Record for an
overview of all the versions I've tried from that particular distillery and links to my full tasting notes for these expressions.
(on 01/05/2008)
I guess that should give any malt maniac hope for the future, especially because most of these distilleries were reborn under the guidance of relatively small companies. Arguably, smaller companies are better suited to meet the specific needs of 'malt maniacs'. With global whisky demand rising, we can expect to see steadily rising whisky prices if the big corporations have anything to say about it...
Besides, I'm not sure what would be the point.
Bottles from silent distilleries are hard to find
and even harder
to replace. I fear that the majority of the people offering them
now are either collectors or fraudsters.
Even with most of the old illegal distilleries gone by the early
1800's, their legal successors still numbered in the hundreds.
That's far too many to list on this page, I'm afraid...
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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.
