Whisky Mash Festival Exhibitor - Tullibardine
Blackford, Perth & Kinross has a long-standing history of alcohol production spanning over the last six centuries and more; it was in fact there that King James IV stopped to buy a barrel of ale after his coronation at Scone in 1488, however, distillation wasn’t officially tried there until the opening of the first of several Tullibardine distilleries in 1798.
The historic original Tullibardine only saw a brief lifespan of a year and closed, with the second iteration commencing production in 1814, this time running for considerably longer until 1837. All that was set to change in 1949 when renowned distillery designer William Delme-Evans bought the former Gleneagles Brewery site and built the new Tullibardine there. It was in fact the first distillery to be built in Scotland since 1900! In 1953 it was bought by blender Brodie Hepburn which increased Tullibardine’s production capacity tremendously but was then, as part of their purchase of Brodie Hepburn, absorbed by Invergordon Distillers, whom in turn were purchased by Whyte & Mackay.
Tullibardine lay silent from 1994 until 2003, as yet another new set of owners found that most of the stock had been filled into old, tired casks which though suitable for some aspects of blending, were not ideal for a stand-alone single malt brand. An extensive re-casking operation soon began and a newly repackaged and reformulated range of single malts has been introduced for our drinking pleasure!
