Banff
Translation: (place name, origin unclear)
Region: Speyside
Animal tragicomedy.
Many distilleries have been affected by fire disasters throughout their history. But none of them met as often and as hard as Banff. Several times the distillery was badly damaged by fire, explosions and bombing. Even when the distillery was largely demolished, the last remaining building became a victim of the flames. Especially remembered in the vicinity of the consequences of a German air raid in 1941. When a warehouse was hit by bombs, the fire department emptied thousands of gallons of ripening whiskey in the nearby river to prevent further spread of the fire. The result: The cows grazing down the river, like some ducks and geese, were probably drowned for the first and only time in their lives.
A little history
Already in 1824 James McKilligan founded a distillery under the name Mill of Banff near the Colleonard Farm. After his death in 1837 Alex Mackay took over the distillery, which in 1852 then James Simpson and his son James Simpson jr. went.
In 1863, James Simpson jr. A few kilometers away is the Inverboyndie Distillery, resting the old distillery.
In 1877, a fire destroyed the main building of the now Banff distillery, but in the same year but could be produced again.
In 1932, the Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. took over. (SMD) the distillery. In an air raid by a German JU 88 on August 16, 1941, the distillery was badly damaged. From the ruined warehouse 12, large quantities of stored whiskey poured into the nearby Boyndie Burn and the neighboring fields.
Until the end of the Second World War, the distillery was then used as a shelter for soldiers.
Another fire catastrophe sparked on 3 October 1959, the boiler maker Norman Forbes. During soldering, there was an explosion that destroyed large parts of the distillery.
The Banff distillery was closed on 31 May 1983 and dismantled from 1985. The last building was destroyed on April 11, 1991 by a fire.
What do I actually have in the glass?
The Banff Malt is quite full and complex. The taste often contains sherry notes, raisins and peppery spiciness, but also hints of grass and hay. The finish is long and soft.
3 reasons to love Banff
1) Because you just have to put unlucky birds in your heart.
2) Because the interesting malt clearly deserves a happier fate.
3) Because tipsy cows somehow have something funny.
The one drama for the lonely island
The only original bottling in the "Rare Malts" series by UD is hard to come by and excellent: distilled in 1982, bottled in 2004 as a 21-year-old in Cask Strength. A powerful jewel.
numbers and facts
Address: Inverboyndie, Banff, Banffshire AB 45
Founded: 1863 by James Simpson Jr.
Status: demolished (1985)
Owner: last Distillers Company Ltd.
Capacity: formerly about 1,000,000 liters
1 wash still
1 spirit still
Water: Boyne Burn
Visitor Center: -
Telephone: -
Website: -
