The Glengyle Distillery is on the same property as the Springbank Distillery and our tour with David covered both distilleries.
Springbank, Glengyle and Cadenhead’s are all cooperating companies with the same owner. This is the only time that 3 tours in one day is possible.
In the 1800’s there were 30 distillers in Campbeltown. By 2000, there were only two, Springbank and Glen Scotia. The Cambeptown Region was threatened with losing their status as a Scotch distilling area. As the story goes, the owner of Springbank purchased the Glengyle Distillery for the sake of maintaining status for the region.
A bit more historical research reveals that William Mitchell founded Glengyle in 1872. Mitchell was part of a distillery family and also owned Springbank with his brother. Glengyle shut down in 1925 due to poor economics after the First World War. The owners of the Glen Scotia Distillery tried to reopen but were thwarted by the Second World War. In 2000, Mitchell Glengyle Ltd. was formed by Hadley Write, a descendant of the original Mitchell Family.
When Glengyle was being refurbished, as the story goes, one of the road crew looked through a ‘window’ that had security bars within the original brick wall. The view was perfectly straight on to the tower of the Lorne & Lowland Church. Word spread around the construction site and eventually it was agreed that this would be used as the logo of the new distillery.
One final piece of trivia; The Glengyle Distillery produces under the Kilkerran brand because yet another distillery, the Loch Lomond Distillery, owns the Glengyle name.
When we visited, Glengyle was in production. We started at the beginning of the process and were lucky enough to touch, smell and even rake barley on the malting floor.
To me, its fascinating to learn about the biology, chemistry and factory production processes that go into making a spirit. Glengyle production is set-up in a straight line from the washbacks to the spirit receiver. The straight line concept makes sense from a productivity stand point and also because the building is pretty long. At one point the building housed a shooting range.
The best part of the tour was at the Glengyle Spirit Safe. The good stuff was flowing, and we were allowed to taste the new make spirit. Fresh yellow fruits and smooth. I would drink this new make without aging. While Springbank has always been a favorite of mine, I am now a Glengyle convert.