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BRORA - SILENT STILLS? Robert Lenox
The distillery itself is situated roughly one mile from the North sea, sixty miles north of Inverness by road and adjacent to Clynelish Farm. It was built for three main reasons: firstly, to provide a ready market for grain that farmers produced locally; secondly, to give employment to some people that had been cleared from the glens and straths of Sutherland to make way for sheep during the Highland Clearances and lastly, to try to discourage illicit distilling which was rife in that area during the 19th century. The distillery was first leased to James Harper and with two stills managed to produce about 10,000 gallons of whisky per annum. He was succeeded in 1827, for a year or so, by James Matheson, before he again took over the lease until 1834 when the lease was acquired by Andrew Ross until 1846. Then George Lawson and his sons held the lease for the next fifty years. They made considerable improvements to the distillery, building a new malt kiln and replacing the old stills. Such was the fame of Clynelish at this time that, not only was the distillery accepting private orders from all over Britain, but also from abroad as well. It had to turn orders from the whisky trade away! George Lawson and his sons seem not only to have been distillers of note but farmers of distinction as well. Their sheep and cattle won prizes at the Smithfield show—fed no doubt on some of the by-products of the distillery. In 1896 the blenders James Ainslie and Co. from Leith bought over the distillery and expanded both the warehousing and production facilities to cope with the demand from trade and private customers. Unfortunately during a large part of the 20th century Clynelish, like the rest of the whisky industry, suffered from the vagaries of economic and world conditions. In 1912 Ainslie and Co. went down the tube and John Risk, who already owned 50% of the company, bought the other 50% and formed the Clynelish Distillery Co. Ltd. John Walker (of Johnnie Walker fame) from Kilmarnock bought into the distillery in 1916 only to sell this on to Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930. Due to the slump the distillery closed from 1931 to 1938 and again from 1941 to 1945 because of restrictions on the use of grain during the war. In the late 1950s and ’60s expansion took place in the whisky industry as a whole. It was decided to do away with the floor malting around 1965, connect the distillery to the mains electricity and have the stills heated by steam instead of being direct coal fired. Customs and Excise would not allow the same name for both the old and the new plants, so the old Clynelish was renamed the Brora Distillery - although the whiskies were referred to as ‘Clynelish A’ (new distillery) and ‘Clynelish B’ (old) for quite some time in the trade. From April 1969 to May 1983, when Brora finally ceased production, its stills were leased to Ainslie and Heilbron Distillers Ltd. For much of its life Brora has been heavily peated to suit its owner’s demand for Islay-style whisky for blending. The peating level for most of the years 1969-83 was about the same as Talisker, 40 ppm. The old Clynelish, now called Brora, was never intended to be marketed as a single malt; it was designed for blending only. The malt market was to be served by the new Clynelish, peated to standard levels. However, around the early nineties, someone in UDV (now Diageo) decided to release 5 butts of Brora as part of the Rare Malts series. These were very strong and heavily peated. They were not watered down to maturing strength, to save casks. At 22yo, distilled in 1972, they were 57.8%, 60.02% and 61.1% abv (104 - 107° proof). The peat-heads loved these bottlings and buoyed by their success UDV released a 20yo in 1995 which was a vat of a large number of hogsheads and came in at 54.9% abv. This wasn’t so heavily peated and allowed the true nuances of the whisky to come out. Those in the trade and connoisseurs have long rated Brora (Old Clynelish) one of the top malts. There have been other good bottlings. Gordon & Macphail bottled some at 25yo which was very smoky and peaty. Unfortunately, like Cadenhead, they mature most of their whiskies themselves (at Speyside and Campbeltown) and in the case of Brora the end product is not so good as if it had been matured at the distillery. Signatory have also brought out some very good bottlings of Brora which have not had caramel added and are unchillfiltered. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has obtained about a dozen casks since starting in 1984; some have been excellent but some mediocre. On nosing Brora you can immediately smell the sea and the medicinal notes along with a whiff of peat smoke. The taste confirms this and there can be a touch of iodine present, like some Islays. It is the most fully flavoured malt distilled on the mainland. The body and hence the quality are very smooth - provided it is over 14 years old. In the after-taste heather, chocolate and mustard are all present. The whisky can also be slightly oily. The finish is very satisfying and long. If you can get hold of some I strongly recommend you do so before it’s all gone. Brora’s future? Well the owners closed it in 1983 along with many others and currently have no plans to reopen. The distillery itself is a listed building and is in relatively good condition. Most of the plant remains and the stills are currently being cleaned. The last I heard was that visitors might be shown round the old distillery at some point in the future. As of 2002, there were about 50 casks left in the distillery plus some elsewhere. When Allied Distillers closed Scapa for a time they came to an arrangement with the owners of neighbouring Highland Park whereby their workers would run Scapa enough to meet demand. It takes only a few days a year to distil all the present Clynelish to meet the market for bottling. Perhaps the owners could follow the example of Scapa, producing enough Brora to meet the bottling and blending needs for what is surely one of Scotland’s great whiskies.
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