A Moray distillery that was brought back to life when it was purchased by Elgin firm Gordon & MacPhail is celebrating a new chapter this week.
Two new warehouses have been opened at the Benromach Distillery to cope with the increased capacity it has enjoyed since reopening in 1998.
The warehouses will almost double the storage capacity at the Forres site to 15,000 casks.
Benromach was founded in 1898 and started producing whisky in 1900 – but the distillery was beset with financial problems and closed in the same year. It was opened again in 1911 and over the following years changed hands a number of times.
It was officially closed in 1983 but ten years later was purchased by Gordon & MacPhail and five years later was officially reopened by the Prince of Wales with bottling resuming in 2004.
“These are exciting times for our classic, hand-crafted single malt whisky” Michael Urquhart, the managing director of Gordon & MacPhail commented, adding: “But whisky is a long term business and the foundation of our success were laid down by Tom Anderson who worked here and in the years before that.”
Mr Anderson officially opened the new warehouses on Friday, unveiling a commemorative plaque and rolling the first barrel of Benromach into a new warehouse.
Attending the ceremony was Moray’s MSP, Richard Lochhead, who said: “Benromach is a fantastic product and since Gordon & MacPhail, a long established Moray company, took over the distillery and re-launched distillation on the site the brand has seen sustained growth and success worldwide.
“That success is amply demonstrated by Gordon & MacPhail’s investment in the distillery with the new warehousing facilities being a very obvious sign of that investment.
“There is massive confidence in the entire scotch whisky sector in both malts and blends and that is contributing hugely to Scotland’s wider food and drink success in the world marketplace and to our hugely important whisky tourism sector.”