Undiscovered Scotland

 

Glenkinchie Distillery's rural setting just over a mile south of Pencaitland in East Lothian belies the fact that it is only about a dozen miles south-east of the centre of Edinburgh. To the south the land rises steadily towards the Lammermuir Hills, and the distillery itself nestles in the bottom of the glen of the Kinchie Burn: hence the name Glenkinchie.

The main visitor car park is opposite the gates of the distillery and from there you walk through beautiful gardens to the mainly brick built buildings of the distillery itself. Distilleries come in a range of shapes and sizes, and it is possible to place them on a scale that has picturesque pagoda-topped beauties at one end, and industrial units at the other. Glenkinchie Distillery will probably never be described as "pretty", but it certainly has character: and the rural surroundings and (in Spring) blossom-clad trees do provide a very nice frame for the buildings.

When we first wrote this feature we said that the visitor centre at Glenkinchie Distillery was one of the very best in Scotland. It was also one of the oldest, opening in 1969 in the space freed up by the closure the previous year of Glenkinchie's floor maltings. In 2020 the distillery - and the visitor centre in particular - underwent a major refurbishment. The result is a truly outstanding visitor experience that has been designed with accessibility in mind: the visitor centre is fully accessible, as is most of the distillery itself.

About 90% of Glenkinchie's output goes into blended whisky and the distillery refers to itself as the lowland home of Johnnie Walker, something reflected in the Johnnie Walker statue outside the entrance to the visitor centre and another inside. A number of different tours are available to suit different levels of interest. What they have in common, if our experience is anything to go by, are superb tour guides who help bring the story of Glenkinchie and its whisky to life.

The second factor common to the tours is the emphasis on the sensory aspects of appreciating the distillery's product. This is given particular focus near the start of the tour in a visit to the Sensory Room where you can begin to appreciate the range of aromas involved. This theme is revisited when you have the opportunity to smell the new make spirit during the tour, and again when sniffing open casks that show the influence of maturation on a whisky's character. (Continues below images...)

 

A range of other well thought out and clearly labelled exhibits cover other aspects of the distiller's art. A highlight of any tour has to be an utterly magnificent scale model of an idealised distillery that occupies one side of a long room. A section is given over to each of the stages in the process. This model was commissioned by James Risk, a consultant employed by the distillery owners, and built in 1924 by the Northampton-based model making company Bassett-Lowke for the Scotch Whisky Exhibit in the Palace of Industry at the Empire Exhibition at Wembley.

From 1926 to 1949 the model was on display at the Science Museum in London. It was then disassembled and put in boxes until 1963. It has been on display at Glenkinchie Distillery since the mid 1970s, and is worth travelling to see in its own right.

A tour of the distillery starts with the kiln, disused since 1968. Glenkinchie was never home to the trademark pagodas which grace so many distilleries, instead it has a distinctive red and black chimney. Presumably the valley bottom setting meant that the smoke from the kiln needed a chimney rather than pagodas to clear the site properly. Still in action and your next port of call is the Porteus Mill, made at Richard Sizer in Hull.

The production areas at Glenkinchie are generously sized, which means there is space to appreciate all the stages. It also means that elements often hidden away behind the scenes, such as the yeast tank, are in plain view. The heart of the mash house is the large stainless steel mash tun. The washbacks have their own separate area, and the Oregon pine of the washbacks themselves is very pleasingly reflected in the wood cladding of the ceiling.

Given that it seems such a large distillery, Glenkinchie's still room comes as something as a surprise. The room itself is large, but it is home to only a single pair of stills. Having said that, at 30,963 litres, Glenkinchie's wash still is one of the largest in Scotland. The spirit safe is given pride of place towards one end of the still room, and if production is under way it is possible to see the clear spirit pouring through the safe.

Some tours visit one of the bonded warehouse, but all take in a room set up to give visitors the chance to experience the sights and smells of one, including the opportunity to sense the influence that different casks have on the maturation process. There are no fewer than three separate tasting rooms for visitors at Glenkinchie as well as a very nice bar that also serves snacks. You will have seen the large and well stocked shop off to one side of the welcoming reception area when you arrived: and it's worth exploring before you leave. When we visited there were some very desirable (and expensive) rare whiskies on display including a 1978 Port Ellen and a 1976 Talisker. Plus many more affordable options!

Glenkinchie Distillery dates back to 1825 when local farmers John and George Rate are recorded as holding a licence to distil whisky at what was known at the time as the Milton Distillery. In 1837 it was renamed Glenkinchie after the Kinchie Burn that fed it. John and George Rate ceased making whisky at Glenkinchie in 1853, though production was in full swing once more (and apparently had been for some time) when Glenkinchie was visited by the author Alfred Barnard during research for his definitive book on distilleries between 1885 and 1887. In 1914 Glenkinchie was one of five lowland distilleries to amalgamate to form Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. This became part of Distillers Company Limited in 1925 and that company has since evolved into Diageo.