Cameronbridge distillery

Cameronbridge distillery

Location	Fife
Owner	Diageo
Founded	1824
Water source	River Leven
No. of stills	3 column stills
Capacity	136 million litres

Cameronbridge distillery (Scottish Gaelic: Drochaid Chamshròn) Is a grain whisky distillery located in Cameron Bridge, Scotland.

History

The distillery was founded in 1824 and in 1830 became the first distillery to produce grain whisky using the column still method invented by Robert Stein. In 1877 John Haig & Co merged with five other whisky companies to form the Distillers Company, with John Haig & Co coming under DCL's full ownership in 1919. Cameron Bridge produced both grain and malt whisky using a combination of pot stills and column stills until 1929, when it shifted exclusively to grain whisky production.

For a period between 1941 and 1947, the distillery closed due to World War II. The current Column still house was constructed during the 1960s, and two of its three stills are more than 30 years old. The third was transferred from Carsebridge distillery in Alloa when it was closed by United Distillers in 1983. Major renovations at Cameron Bridge occurred in 1989–92 as well as up to 2000 when the distillery produced up to 30 million imperial gallons (140,000,000 L) of spirit annually.^[1][2]

In 1989 Cameronbridge also changed from being solely a large-scale grain whisky distillery into a 'dual-purpose' site, when United Distillers' grain neutral spirit (GNS) operation was transferred to Fife from Wandsworth in London. GNS for white spirits and 'sweetened products' such as Archers, Pimm's, Smirnoff, Tanqueray and Gordon's Gin were also produced alongside grain spirit used in the Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell's, Black & White, Vat 69, Haig and White Horse blended whisky brands owned by Diageo but the GNS column was later converted to a whisky still but remains capable of producing GNS.^[3]

It is currently the largest of the remaining grain distilleries in Scotland^[4] and is owned by Diageo.^[5]

References

1. "Cameron Bridge Scotch Whisky Distillery". Scotchwhisky.net. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
2. "Green move for Scotch whisky firm". BBC News. 2004-11-14. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
3. "Loch Fyne Whiskies - Scotch Whisky Review - Edition 16". Archived from the original on 24 January 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
4. Russell, Inge and Stewart, Graham G. (2014). Whisky: Technology, Production and Marketing. Elsevier. p.xx. ISBN 9780124046030
5. Dorsey, Kristy (16 December 2017). Diageo marks its 20th anniversary. Insider.co.uk