Glencraig Scotch Whisky

Glencraig  (Also: Glen Craig, pronounced: glen-kreegk)
Speyside (Findhorn)
57°37'19.7256 N, 3°31'3.6264 W
Benromach, Dallas Dhu, Glen Moray, Miltonduff
1956
Closed - the Lomond stills were demolished in 1981
Local springs
Lomond stills
None
Pernod Ricard > Allied (Domecq) (since 2005)
Alves, Near Forres, Morayshire, IV36 0QX, Scotland
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No
No
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Below, on Whiskyfun and on the Malt Maniacs Monitor

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The building depicted at the right isn't the Glencraig distillery, because
that never actually existed - at least not as a separate set of buildings.
Glencraig was the name of the whisky that was distilled in two special
'Lomond Stills' at the Glenburgie distillery between 1956 and 1981.

Chapter 4 of the Beginner's Guide provides some backgrounds on the
difference between the traditional 'swan neck' stills and 'Lomond' stills.
The person who played an important role in the introduction of this
important innovation - or at least change - in the Scottish malt whisky
industry was Margaret Nicol. In 1936 she was the first female distillery
manager in Scotland. Margaret got the job when Hiram Walker and
George Ballantine & Son took over the Glenburgie distillery.

Glencraig whisky

Margaret was connected to a historic development in the whisky industry; the introduction of a new kind of still. The last innovation in this area (the Coffey still) was one century old when Alistair Cunningham and Arthur Warren of Hiram Walker came up with the plan for the Lomond still in 1955. This type of still had a regular 'pot' at the bottom of the still, but the traditional swan neck had been modified. Within the straigh pipe there were three adjustable plates, called 'rectifier plates' which could be cooled separately. By modifying the position and temperature of the plates the reflux of the 'boiling' whisky could be controlled. 

The angle of the 'lyne arm' at the top of the still could be modified as well to influence the character of the whisky further. That was exactly what Hiram Walker was trying to accomplish in order to better meet the demands of the blenders. The makers of (among other brands) Ballantine's wanted to be able to use a wider spectrum of malt whiskies without having to build more malt whisky distilleries. The very first Lomond still was installed in 1956 in Hiram Walker's Dumbarton distillery (located right on the border between Highlands & Lowlands).

At one time Dumbarton was Scotland's largest grain whisky distillery; it draws its water from the nearby Loch Lomond - the lake, not to be confused with the Loch Lomond distillery. Within the Dumbarton complex the Inverleven malt whisky distillery operated between 1938 and 1991. That first Lomond still was soon replaced by another still that was twice as large. During the production process the Lomond still was used as the spirit still next to the regular Inverleven wash still. This spirit still was mothballed in 1985.

In 1958 two Lomond Stills were installed within the
Glenburgie distillery. In this case both the wash
still and the spirit still were of the 'Lomond' type.
I guess this makes the whisky that was produced
there a real 100% Lomond whisky, as opposed
to the 50% Lomond whisky that was made at
the Inverleven / Dumbarton distillery.
 
As mentioned before, the Lomond malt whisky
that was produced at Glenburgie was called
Glencraig (sometimes Glen Craig), after production
director Willie Craig. The Lomond stills were
replaced with regular pot stills in 1981.

Why didn't the Lomond Stills become a success?
Probably the most important reason was the fact
that the maintenance and cleaning of Lomond
stills was very labour intensive. Whenever the
still had been in operation for a few hours a thick
layer of residue emerged on the rectifier plates;
this was very difficult to remove.
 
More importantly, as it turned out there simply
was more demand from blenders for Glenburgie
malt whisky than for the 'Glencraig' Lomond variety.
The same was true for the Mosstowie Lomond
whisky that was made at Miltonduff distillery.

The whole 'raison d'etre' for building those darned
Lomond stills in the first place was to better suit
the needs of blenders. However, apparently the
blenders were not that interested. That meant
that the space and capital that were required to
keep a separate production line going could be
put to better use (i.e. more profitable use) by
installing regular equipment instead. 

What's more, the theoretical flexibility provided by the rectifier plates proved to be mostly theoretical indeed.
One would imagine that the plates would enable the stillmen to manipulate the character of the Lomond whisky, but it seems to me that the opposite was actually achieved. Maybe it's my imagination, but I found oily notes in many of the 'Lomond' type malt whiskies from different distilleries.

These days, the 'Lomond' era is definitely over - although an 'amputated' Lomond still (without rectifier plates) is still used on Orkney at the Scapa distillery and Mark Reynier has brought Dumbarton's old Lomond stills to Islay in order to use them for his new Port Charlotte distillery. Well, there is ONE distillery that still keeps the Lomond still legacy alive, and that is - fittingly - Loch Lomond distillery itself. Apart from two regular pot stills they have no less than four other stills in operation with so-called 'rectifying heads'. By combining the whiskies that are produced by these six stills in different ways, Loch Lomond is able to produce eight different whiskies they say - all of them fairly mediocre if you ask me. When the Scotch Whisky Association wanted to introduce a bunch of new whisky categories around the year 2007 Loch Lomond asked for a special category for its whisky - and if ANY 'malt' whisky distillery had solid grounds for such a request it's Loch Lomond. However, the request was denied. Interestingly enough, Loch Lomond is not a member of the SWA - which in reality is mostly a lobby organisation for the big corporations anyway.

Glenburgie is still active, but the Lomond stills for the Glencraig malt whisky were removed in 1981.
That means that no new Glencraig malt whisky can ever be produced. Glencraig has always been pretty rare to begin with, and will become even rarer in the future. This may make bottlings interesting for collectors, but based on my experiences so far it's not a whisky worth hunting down if you're primarily interested in good time dramming.
Glenburgie is now owned by Pernod Ricard who successfully acquired Allied Domecq in 2005.