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Glen Albyn
Glen Albyn is one of the three malt distilleries that comprised the now lost Inverness distilling industry. It was established in 1846 by James Sutherland however operated only briefly before being converted into a flour mill in 1866. Whisky production eventually resumed in 1884 and in 1920 the distillery was acquired by Mackinlay & Birnie, a partnership between one of its former managers, John Birnie, and the Leith-based blender, Charles Mackinlay & Co.
The distillery was primarily operated for the provision of various blended Scotch brands and was eventually acquired by the Distillers Company after its takeover of Mackinlays & Birnie in 1972. It was then closed along with with neighbouring Glen Mhor in 1983 and has since been demolished.
Always owned by companies who's primary interests were their blended Scotch brands, it is unsurprising that Glen Albyn chiefly operated in service of these as well. It was however briefly marketed as a single malt during the 1960s while under the ownership of Mackinlay & Birnie. The license for the brand was assigned to Charles Mackinlay & Co subsidiary, John E. McPherson & Sons, who bottled it as a 10-year-old.
When Mackinlays & Birnie was sold to the Distillers Company in 1972, the license agreement was terminated and the Glen Albyn brand was discontinued until the 1980s when it was re-assigned to Gordon & MacPhail. The Elgin-based independent bottler then continued to bottle its own Glen Albyn brand as part of what are now referred to as its Distillery Labels range until the early 2010s.
The John E. McPherson & Sons bottlings were the only official single malts released while the distillery was operational and aside from a single Diageo release in 2002 as part of the Rare Malts Selection series, no other distillery bottlings have been produced.
1997-present (name only)
1986-1997 (name only)
1972-1986
1920-1972
