Glen Moray Distillery in pictures

Last week, The Spirits Business visited Glen Moray Distillery, home of the Speyside single malt, and Label 5 blended Scotch – check out the trip in pics.

Glen Moray is something of a sleeping giant single malt. Set to become one of the of the largest producers on Speyside, the distillery is undergoing significant expansion as owner La Martiniquaise Bardinet seeks to scale up Label 5, its international blended Scotch brand.

But Glen Moray as a single malt is about to recruit swathes of new fans and enjoy a renaissance of its own, if the expanse of maturing casks of all types is anything to go by.

Master distiller Graham Coull led SB editor, Kristiane Sherry, on a tour of the Glen Moray site, including the new distillery expansion, the cosy visitor centre and a warehouse with an intriguing array of casks – click through to see the distillery in pictures. 

It all began with a cocktail…

… a punch-type serve with Glen Moray 12 at the sumptuous Craigellachie Hotel. Whether for sipping or mixing, the whisky was a wonderful winter warmer.

First stop the following morning was the Speyside Cooperage.

Glen Moray is paying close attention to its cask sourcing, and its current maturation/finishing programme encompasses all kinds of casks. But more on that later…

The Speyside Cooperage was founded in 1947, and still produces casks using traditional methods and tools. Each year, it produces and repairs nearly 150,000 oak casks which are used by the surrounding Speyside whisky distilleries, as well as distilleries throughout Scotland and the rest of the world. In the foreground, an ex-red wine cask is repaired.

Over to Glen Moray and a warm reception awaits at the visitor centre.

Between the drams and the delicious food served in the cafe, the centre has become a destination in its own right for locals and visitors alike.

The tour begins with a sneak peek at the distillery expansion project.

Four pairs of external wash backs (in the rear of the image) will go towards enabling the distillery to produce close to 6 million litres of alcohol per year.

The main distillery build will see three new wash stills installed.

One spirit still from the existing distillery will be converted to a spirit still, so that the spirit stills and the wash stills will each be housed together. SB was given a preview of the new build, which is set to be commissioned in January.

Malt is delivered to the existing distillery building.

Unveiled earlier this year, Glen Moray Elgin Classic Peated Single Malt shone a delicious new light on the brand’s single malt range, and peated malt currently accounts for around 10% of production at around 300,000 tonnes per year. “It will gradually go up year-on-year, but it’s enough just now,” said Coull, adding that most of the new capacity would go towards Label 5.

Like many distilleries, Glen Moray makes use of a Porteus mill.

Each batch currently weights in at 7.5 tonnes, and the mill has the capacity to run both old and new distilleries.

The Glen Moray mash tun is “very typical”, says Coull.

This is the 7.5-tonne existing mash tun, which will be joined by an 11-tonne sister once the new build is complete.

Coull shows off one of the current spirit stills.

Coull joined Glen Moray as distillery manager in 2005.

The current Glen Moray still house pre-expansion…

Soon, one of the stills will be converted from a wash to a spirit still. The new build will then hold all the wash stills, and the existing building will house spirit stills. “The trickiest bit will be the heating element in transfer,” Coull explained. “It probably seems unusual because of the way distilleries have evolved. But for us, it’s a lot simpler to do this, otherwise we would have two process flows.”

In addition to the production expansion, Glen Moray has also build a number of new warehouses, taking the total number on-site to 12.

There is a 135,000 cask capacity at the distillery, with possible plans to double this to around 270,000, says Coull. 

There were around 4,000 casks alone in the warehouse we visited…

… which includes a number of experiments. Glen Moray has already produced an excellent Chardonnay cask finish, but keep your eyes peeled for possible rum-finished and even cider-finished liquid at some stage in the future.

Don’t miss the January issue for more from Glen Moray.