‘Hidden’ in the countryside, Macallan's history spans more than 200 years. It was recently completely renovated and opened to the public in summer 2018.
A lot has happened in those 200 years. But in the end, Macallan is now considered one of the leading and most iconic distilleries worldwide.
Let's take a look at this 2-century road to glory.
It was Alexander Raid who in 1824 applied for a licence to build a distillery on a piece of land of more than seven acres, which he leased from the Earl of Seafield. A year later, Alexander produced his first whisky from his distillery McAllan, the name of the place where his venture was located.
Near the distillery stands Easter Elchies House, built by Captain John Grant in 1700. This house became part of The Macallan in 1961 and became the symbol of the distillery and whisky. Alexander Raid would continue distilling for twenty-two years until he died on 18 October 1847. The year after his death, the licence was transferred to the duo James Shearer Priest and James Davidson. This partnership lasted for three years, but from 1852 the licence was in the name of James Davidson alone. Originally a grain merchant from Rothes, he was then aged fifty-four and by 1866 was producing between 68,000 and 91,000 litres per season. James held the licence until 1868, when it passed into the name of James Stuart.
James Stuart, with two associates, had tried to establish Glen Rothes distillery in 1875, but this ended in failure for him. In 1883, he tried it with only one associate and started building distillery Glen Spey, this distillery came into production in 1885. James Stuart decided to buy distillery Macallan from the Seafield Estate in 1886 and was therefore forced to sell Glen Spey a year later to W. & A. Gilbey Ltd wine and spirits merchant from London.
When Alfred Barnard visited Glen Spey and Macallan for his book The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, both companies were still in James Stuart's name. Glen Spey was briefly described, but hardly any attention was paid to Macallan. At the time, it was an old-fashioned intention where the same whisky was made as at Glen Spey. Most of its production of over 180,000 litres found its way to England.
James Stuart would hold Macallan until 1892, Roderick Kemp took over the distillery from him in that year. He set about restoring the old-fashioned and dilapidated distillery to a better state. Among other things, he had a new malt house with barley storage loft and malt drying kiln built, and several whisky warehouses between 1895 and 1897. He changed the name to Macallan-Glenlivet, Glenlivet was then the area now called Speyside.
Before Kemp bought Macallan, he already owned half the shares of Talisker distillery and thus founded the company The Talisker & The Macallan distilleries Ltd. Roderick Kemp ensured that his Macallan whisky gained a very good reputation.
After Roderick Kemp's death on Wednesday morning, 6 January 1909, a kind of foundation was set up, which came to be called Roderick Kemp's Trust. With this, the next of kin wanted to protect Kemp's estate from takeovers.
On 12 February 1924, roofer George Bain from Elgin and construction workers James Mackay from Rothes and Alexander Fraser also from Elgin were convicted of stealing whisky from Macallan warehouses. The three were carrying out work on the distillery's premises when they gained access to a whisky warehouse by removing bricks from a wall. By drilling a hole in a whisky cask, they managed to steal 150 litres of whisky. The crime was discovered when an employee of the warehouse noticed a wet stain on the ground. The Elgin court gave them a choice between a fine or a six-week jail term.
Roderick Kemp's Trust came to an end after World War II, in April 1946. It became a private company called R. Kemp Macallan-Glenlivet Ltd. The company's board of directors included Roderick Kemp's descendants: Samuel Allan Shiach, Catherine Leslie Shiach, Gordon Leslie Kemp Shiach, Kathleen Chamberlain Harbinson and George Chamberlain Harbinson.
As written earlier, Easter Elchies House was bought from the Seafield estate in 1961 and subsequently restored. Five years later, in 1965, the number of stills was doubled from six to 12 in a separate distillery with its own brew kettle and six fermenting vats made of larch wood. Kemp family members began selling shares in 1966. Initially to staff and other distillery stakeholders such as suppliers. The annual dividend was paid out in whisky, giving it the nickname ‘The Malt of the People’.
In 1968, R. Kemp Macallan-Glenlivet Limited was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and so other people could also buy shares. In the same year, the malting plant closed and the number of boilers was increased to 18 in 1974, with three more added a year later. Another two years later, Macallan opened to the public by building a visitor centre there. Due to the global economic crisis, production at the distillery built in 1965 was halted in 1981 before returning to production in 1984. In 1986, the van Kemp family sold 25% of the shares to Japan's Suntory and, four years later, 26% to France's Remy Cointreau. After the latter share sale, the family still held only 20% of the shares.
In 1990, a whisky warehouse was commissioned that could store 80,000 barrels of whisky, and a year later the distillery that opened in 1965 was closed again. Four years after the warehouse was commissioned, a distribution agreement was signed with Highland Distillers. In January 1996, the latter company bought the 26% shares of Remy Cointreau. In July the same year, Highland Distillers and Suntory formed the company HS Distillers Ltd, which thus acquired 51% of the shares in Macallan. Suntory became a silent partner in this company, receiving exclusive distribution of Macallan whisky in Japan. As the largest shareholder, all other shareholders, with a total of 49% shares, were bought out and Highland Distillers in HS Distillers Ltd. Macallan's sole owner. This did not remain the case for long, as in 1999 Highland Distillers itself became the victim of a takeover. The 1887 Company bought the company that year. Actually, the Edrington Group wanted to take over Highland Distillers, but did not have enough money to do so. It was decided to team up with William Grants & Sons to form The 1887 Company. The name The 1887 Company was chosen because this was the founding year of William Grants & Sons and Highland Distillers. Shares in the new company were divided as follows: Edrington Group 70% and William Grants & Sons 30%.
A new visitor centre was built in 2001 and a year later the small stills used for the second distillation were heated with steam instead of coal. In 2009, the 1965 second distillery was renovated and brought back into production with an additional 3 stainless steel fermentation vats.
An all-new The Macallan distillery opened to the public in summer 2018. This new distillery houses a brew kettle in which 17 tonnes of mash can be made. For fermentation, there are 21 stainless steel fermentation vats, each with a capacity of 68,000 litres. The first distillation takes place in 12 copper stills with a capacity of 12,950 litres each, and the second distillation goes into 24 stills with a capacity of 3,900 litres each. The total annual production capacity is 15 million litres of pure alcohol. All this including a visitor centre, an art gallery and a collection of 400 different Macallan whisky bottles is all tucked away under a more than 200-metre sloping ‘green’ roof, but more on that later.
The roof is 207 metres long and 57 wide and consists of five mounds. Four mounds have a height of 18 metres and the largest stands out at 27 metres. Jokingly, the roof was called the teletubbie roof, but the employee who dared to put that in his mouth could face dismissal. The initial design consisted of one big green grass blanket that was supposed to make the distillery disappear invisibly into the landscape. Until it was realised that this way very little daylight could shine on the shop floor. To cope with this, numerous triangular windows appeared in the roof that pretty much negated the invisibility of the distillery. The construction of this new distillery took three and a half years and cost £140 million. 400 men worked on the construction. Sixteen new whisky warehouses were also built. These warehouses, which can store 50,000 whisky barrels, were built with reddish-brown walls and poison-green roofs. With these colours, the warehouses stand out unmistakably in the landscape.
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