Longmorn’s Victorian persona sits up amid the greenery of the Elgin hinterland, the roof of a great, long warehouse serving as a canvas for the man-sized lettering that announces the distillery name. The site had been a grain mill since the early 1600s.

In 1894, just under 20 years after he opened Glenlossie distillery, John Duff and two partners built Longmorn on the Rothes road south of Elgin that is still today something of a Distillers’ Row.

The floor maltings were used until 1970 when they became the distillery boiler-room. Longmorn has four pairs of stills and until recently the four wash stills were coal fired. This was the original direct-flame means of heating stills, a method that took a lot of monitoring and good judgement on the part of the stillman and stoker. One of the reasons this operation was practicable at Longmorn is that the original still house, which had two pairs of stills, was made over to accommodate four wash stills; the neighbouring filling store was then converted to take four corresponding spirit stills. Each building was then able to provide the separate heating arrangements that had been decided upon. The wash stills have rummagers which revolve inside during boiling up to stop solids sticking and burning, and the old waterwheel that can be seen at the distillery was used to power the rummagers in the past. The water for distilling comes from local springs and the peat from mosses on the Mannoch Hill.

The broad characteristics combine fresh, clean nuttiness with a generous, big, velvety mass; usually some smoky richness with sherry background depending on the cask. Longmorn from source is bottled at 15 years and 43% vol. Twelve-year-old and 1956, 1962, 1963 and 1969 vintages are available from independents.