TWO of Scotland's internationally renowned distilleries have reason to celebrate with their single malt whiskies having been given the green light for multi-million pound expansion plans.
A £100 million new cooperage and warehouse development for Macallan was approved by Moray Council, along with new distilling facilities, tun rooms and equipment for Glenfiddich in Dufftown.
The Macallan project is a further development of the new distillery and visitor centre at the premises near Craigellachie, which was approved at a planning committee meeting earlier this year.
Glenfiddich's works will see the expansion of production facilities and improved access, but the family-owned company has not released details of the project costs.
Speaking after the local authority meeting, council leader Stewart Cree said the committee decision was a vote of confidence in the whisky industry by the council.
"For these global industries to commit to this level of investment in Moray is a measure of their confidence in the Speyside brand," he said.
"It is recognised the world over as the finest malt whisky you can get, and that reputation draws thousands of visitors to our area every year.
"As such we are glad to be able to play our part in ensuring the boost to our communities from this confidence, and look forward to seeing these industries go from strength to strength."
The Macallan application was recommended to be approved by planning officers, and members of the Moray Council’s Planning and Regulatory Services Committee unanimously agreed the proposal after imposing two conditions.
These were the monitoring of sound levels every quarter for five years and that the proposed lighting scheme be referred back to the committee for further consideration. This was to reflect concerns over possible light pollution in the rural location.
Drinks giant Edrington, which also owns The Famous Grouse and Orkney's celebrated Highland Park malt whisky, owns Macallan. Founded in 1824 in the heart of Speyside, The Macallan was one of the first distilleries in Scotland to be legally licensed.
Edrington has commissioned world famous architect Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for the expansion project, which will feature glass-fronted curved buildings with turf roofs.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “This is a project that will provide vital infrastructure for the new distillery and will be a site of major architectural significance.
“When it is complete in 2017 the new distillery and visitors’ centre will bring both employment and significant economic benefits to our local community.”
The original Glenfiddich Distillery was built by hand by William Grant and his family. It was completed in 1887. Its core range includes bottles of 12, 14, 15, 18 and 21-year-old Glenfiddich single malts.
Speyside is the largest whisky region in Scotland producing some of the lightest single malts. It has the the vast majority of distilleries in the land. There are over 80 working in the area including other well-known brands such as Glenlivet, Glen Grant and Cardhu. The last was the only distillery in Scotland to have been founded by a woman, when it was opened in 1811 by Helen Cumming.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here