Glen Garioch
Despite being one of the most fertile parts of Scotland, Aberdeenshire has very few distilleries. In 1995 it looked likely to have one less when Morrison Bowmore (MBD) mothballed Glen Garioch, in the little town of Oldmeldrum. Much to everyone’s surprise they reopened it two years later – in time for its 200th birthday – and gave Fraser Hughes his first managerial job.
Fraser is overseeing a radical shift in Gier. Garioch’s style. For years, MBD had hammered on the peat, but now the malt i-unpeated. A new yeast strain is being usec and the cut has been narrowed, resulting :r. i gorgeously-sweet and fragrant new make. ‘Not many people get the chance to be in charge and be in at the start of such a huge transformation,’ says Fraser. ‘I’m really excited about it. 10 years down the line this will be a winner.’
The superb malt barns could produce three-quarters of the distillery’s needs and Fraser is clearly itching to get them going again. Successful trials mean it is a distinct possibility that the smell of kilning malt could once again waft over the village, whici has been rejuvenated...