Malt whisky industry in Scotland
DiageoPacific SpiritsWhyte & MackayEdrington GroupBacardiWilliam GrantPernod RicardMoët Hennessy

For example, should the Loch Ewe micro-distillery be counted as a proper whisky
distillery? As far as I know, most of the production is sold and consumed as spirit,
and there are only three casks of maturing Loch Ewe malt whisky in the whole
wide world. That means that the odds of you ever tasting any of it (or buying a
bottle if you actually like it) are slim at best. (Slim odds? Well, you get my drift...)

Have you ever wondered how many malt whisky distilleries are operating in Scotland?
Of course you have - because that's exactly the sort of stuff that somebody who visits
Malt Madness would be wondering about. Well, assuming that my information about the
state of the Scotch whisky industry is correct, there are now exactly 97 (active) Scotch
malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. That number might vary slightly from the number that
is mentioned in some books - partly because few books are updated as frequently as
web sites, and partly because there will always be some grey areas.

The Top 10 at the right shows the companies that produced the most malt whisky
around the year 2010. The number of distilleries of each company is shown between
brackets. Please keep in mind that this page only lists ACTIVE DISTILLERIES and
their owners - there are a few dozen silent Scotch malt whisky distilleries as well.

Glenmorangie 15 years old Scotch whisky

The whisky business can be good business - the family that owns 'William Grant & Sons' became billionaires in 2012.
Something to remember when the industry cites rising prices for raw materials as the reason for rising whisky prices...
Check out the "brands" page if the name of the malt whisky you're looking for isn't listed here - or scroll down this page.

As I pointed out earlier, this page only lists ACTIVE malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. That's just one way of looking at
just one aspect of the whisky world. Fortunately, there are quite a few other perspectives and selections available on the
Malt Madness website. If this page (or the Google search box at the top of the page) don't help, perhaps these links will:

  • Distillery Data Overview - a long list with not only active malt whisky distilleries, but silent (closed) ones as well.
  • New Distillery Projects in Scotland - from glints in the eyes of entrepreneurs to buildings that are nearly finished.
  • Whisky Brands - the distillery name is listed on the labels of most single malts, but there are lots of other brands.
  • Whisky Bottlers - it may seem odd, but the company that bottles the whisky is often different from the producer.
  • Interactive Map of Scotland - handy if you're a tourist, or if you believe that the 'terroir' theories are still relevant.
  • Whisky Regions of Scotland - Some more detailed information about the "traditional" whisky regions of Scotland.

I hope that this rough overview makes the ownership situation in the Scotch malt whisky world a little more transparent.
Thanks to the input of my fellow maniacs (Dave Broom and Keith Wood in particular), I'm pretty confident that this block
schedule was 100% accurate when I first published it. However, now it's feasible that things have changed since then.
After a couple of relatively quiet years around the peak of the credit crunch of 2008, things seem to be evolving again.
If you happen to spot an omission or mistake, please contact me so I can try and fix the problem.

DISCLAIMER: IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS REPRESENTATION USEFUL FOR AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE, SOME OWNERSHIP RELATIONS ARE SIMPLIFIED.
FOR EXAMPLE, IN SOME CASES THE DISTILLERY AND THE BRAND ARE OWNED BY DIFFERENT COMPANIES, OR OWNERSHIP IS SHARED BETWEEN COMPANIES.

 

Scottish whisky industry and trade
Glenfiddich 1974 single malt whisky
mAlmanac - HomeHot Whisky ListBest Whisky ListWorst Whisky List Best Value Whisky ListBest Whisky Books ListWhisky Industry ListMalt Whisky CollectionScotch Whisky Tasting NotesTrack Record
whisky information

Custom Search
 

 

Back to the Malt Madness homepageCanvas DreamsJohannes van den Heuvel
Malt Madness - all about malt whiskyMalt ManiacsWhiskyFunQuestionsMalt MadnessDeviant DramsLiquid LogDistillery Data

The Scotch malt whisky industry at a glance . . .

 

mAlmanac - Main page

Custom Search