Location and contact details
Location: Dalwhinnie Distillery, Dalwhinnie, Inverness-shire, PH19 1AA
Visit Type: Vistor Centre
Co-ordinates: 56.940140, -4.239124
Telephone: +44 (0) 01540 672 219
Email: dalwhinnie.distillery[at]diageo.com
Web: https://www.discovering-distilleries.com/dalwhinnie/ 
Twitter: DiscoverDistilleries (@12distilleries)Facts and figures
| Location | Dalwhinnie Distillery, Dalwhinnie, Inverness-shire, PH19 1AA |
| Founded | 1898 |
| Founder | John Grant, George Sellar and Alexander Mackenzie |
| Owner | Diageo |
| Water Source | Allt an t'Sluie Burn |
| Stills | 1 washs till (17,000 litres) 1 spirit still (14,000 litres) |
Opening Hours
Opening hours vary through the year; check for details of opening hours
Tours
Dalwhinnie Distillery Tour
£12
Take a distillery tour that gives you an explanation of the traditional art of malt whisky distilling. Afterwards sample 2 Dalwhinnie single malts with specially selected chocolate that combines beautifully with the whisky. A guide will also give you advice on the best way to appreciate whisky and suggest other food combinations. End on a high note as all adults recieve a complimentary Dalwhinnie whisky glass.
The Wallace Tour
£50
Take the Wallace tour which will guide you through the distillery, with the chance to ask more in depth questions. Following your tour, you will enjoy a vertical tasting of six different Dalwhinnie Single Malt expressions in the cooperage tasting room – learning about how the flavours, colour and character are created. You will also have the opportunity to take a small sample, from an exclusive cask, away with you.
Review: Dalwhinnie Distillery Tour (14:00 on 05/10/2019)
Price: Free
I have a Friend of the Classic Malt journal which gets me tours of the 12 Diageo Classic Malt Distilleries for free, but the scheme can no longer be joined. In addition, the new booking websites do not allow you to reserve a spot free of charge. However, one quick call to Dalwhinnie and I had moy spot reserved on the proviso I had my journal with me when I arrived, otherwise I would need to make payment. The tour I was on had twelve people on it.
As I say, Dalwhinnie is a Diageo distillery which means the tour guides are well prepped with a script. The guide is the make or break element to this, and our guide was very good and supplemented the standard tour with a little more information and a few well placed jokes.
On this tour you get a description of the malting and milling processes, but do not see the mill in operation; there is an old Boby mill in the room where this part of the tour takes place.
After this you move on to see the mashing and fermentation, where one wash back is opened up so you can see inside and smell the wash as it ferments. After this we moved onto the still house and then a warehouse to see the marrels maturing.
At the end of the tour, you get to sample two whiskies, with small bottles provided to carry your samples away:
History
Dalwhinnie is one of Diageo's Classic Malts.
Dalwhinnie Distillery, in the Highland village of Dalwhinnie in Scotland, produces Single malt Scotch whisky classified among the Highland Single Malts. In 1897, John Grant, George Sellar and Alexander Mackenzie founded the Strathspey distillery. Production started in 1898 but unfortunately the partnership was bankrupt the same year. The site was chosen for its access to clear spring water from Lochan-Doire-Uaine and abundant peat from the surrounding bogs; set in splendid mountain scenery, Dalwhinnie is the one of the highest distilleries in Scotland at 1164' above sea level. The name Dalwhinnie is derived from Gaelic word Dail-coinneeamh, which means meeting place, referring to the meeting of ancient cattle drovers' routes through the mountains.
The distillery was sold to AP Blyth in 1898 for his son who renamed it Dalwhinnie. Later in 1905 the Cook & Bernheimer took control over the distillery. The distillers were looking for malts to produce blended whiskies for the US market. This was the very first US investment in the Scotch whisky industry. The US adventure continued until the prohibition in the US in 1920 and the distillery returned to Scotland when it was purchased by Lord James Calder, shareholder of whisky blender MacDonald Greenlees. MacDonald Greenlees was later acquired by Distillers Company; Dalwhinnie later became part of the blender group James Buchanan.
A fire in 1934 stopped production for 3 years, and the reopening in 1938 was short-lived because the second world war brought restrictions on the supply of barley. Since reopening in 1947, the distillery has continued to operate through to the present day, although on-site malting ceased in 1968.
In 1986, the distillery and bonded warehouse was listed as a Category B listed building.[3]
Dalwhinnie has become famous worldwide because it is marketed by its owners, United Distillers unit of Diageo, under their Classic Malts brand, launched in 1988. Despite this, only 10% of the production is marketed as single malt, the remaining being used in the Black & White blends.
