Strathisla

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Founded

1786

Region

Speyside

Status

Operational

Company

Pernod Ricard

Production type

Single malt

Production capacity

2,450,000 litres per year

Former name

Milltown, Milton

Speyside's oldest operational distillery, Strathisla was founded in 1786 as Milltown and later renamed Milton in 1890. It was an early advocate of its single malt which was sold under the brand name Strathisla after the river that runs past the site. Despite the popularity of its whisky, the distillery was struggling by the 1940s and required recuing by the Seagram Company. The Canadian giant bought it in 1950, renaming it Strathisla the following year and tasking it as a key contributor to its Chivas blends.

The distillery remains part of Chivas Brothers to this day, which has been the Scotch whisky division of Pernod Ricard since 2001.

The Strathisla single malt brand is very old indeed and the distillery output was being sold unblended from as early as the late 19th century. The modern iteration of the brand first appeared in the 1950s however, when the marketing of Strathisla was licensed to William Longmore & Co (notably still featuring the Milton distillery name on the label). This tradition carried on into the 1960s after Chivas Brothers acquired the distillery, however they also bottled Strathisla single malts. The most prominent licensee was Gordon & MacPhail which continues to use the old version of the branding for its Distillery Labels collection to this day.

By the 1980s the standard age statement produced in-house had become a 12-year-old and it was this expression that Seagram packaged into its Heritage Selection stable in 1994 (alongside Glen Keith, Longmorn and Benriach). It remains the core product to this day and has been in its current guise since 2013.

Current owner

Chivas Brothers

Pernod Ricard

2001-present

Seagram Company

1950-2001

Strathisla Distillery
Seafield Avenue
Keith
AB55 5BS
Scotland

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