Gaelic meaning 'burn of milk'. Often pronounced "Alt a Baine", but it should be "Alt a Vanya"
VisitingAllt-a-Bhainne is not open to the public.
Vital Stats
Allt-a-Bhainne is a very minimalist distillery - no malting, no warehouses, just the core process. It does however have one nod to the past in the four fake pagodas that adorn the roof. The spirit is tankered to Chivas facilities in Keith for filling and maturation. As with Breaval, built a couple of years before, it was designed to be operated by a single person, by Seagram, then owners of Chivas Regal in 1975 to increase stocks of malt for their blends
Was mothballed in 2002 by Pernod Ricard shortly after they bought Chivas Brothers, but resumed production in 2005. To help with the blends, the distillery has also been producing a peated variant - Ingvar Ronde suggests a 10ppm malt is used, though scotchwhisky.com refers to a 'heavily peated variant'. Malt Madness Wikipedia WhiskyMerchants.co.uk scotchwhisky.com |
Getting ThereClick the Google logo on the above map to access Street View, Directions etc.
Open Cycle Map Bing Map Benrinnes Mortlach Tamnavulin Glenlivet Distilleries Speyside Distilleries Avon/Fiddich Nearest National Rail stations are Elgin (ELG) (23 miles), Keith (KEH) (16) or Huntly (HNT) (19). Live train times: ELG, KEH, HNT. The preserved Keith & Dufftown railway runs up to 3 trips a day at weekends in summer and some Fridays too - also during the Speyside Festivals (6 mies). Allt-a-Bhainne is in Glen Rinnes, on the B9009 from Dufftown towards Glenlivet. RangeAllt-a-Bhainne has never had an official bottling.
Independent bottlings are also quite rare - Gordon & MacPhail have bottled a few casks, as have Signatory. Allt-a-Bhannie is one of the malts that has been bottled as/by Deerstalker, a company that bottles rarely released malts - sometimes with an attribution, otherwise with a hint at the origin. The best bottles that I have tasted have been a couple of the few bottled by SMWS. Not aware of any of the peated variant having been bottled. RMW TWE MoM CyclingNearest Bike shops Grantown (24), Elgin (23)
Base Camp Bikes 5 The Square, Grantown 01479 870050 Bikes and Bowls 7 High Street, Elgin 01343 549656 Halfords Lossie Wynd N, Elgin 01343 552030 Charlie Millett Dufftown 01340 820991 Not a shop - has a page on the Dufftown.net website - provides repairs and spares - assisted Whisky Cyclist in 2014 when stranded in Craigellachie with a damaged tyre and in 2017 with a broken pedal. |
Photos on this page were taken by me. Click on photo to enlarge. Full size versions of all my photos of Allt-a-Bhainne Distillery are available on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157628632673253/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157628632673253/