Tomintoul distillery was the venture of two Glasgow whisky broking firms, one of which owned the Real Mountain Dew whisky blend, which was well known a century ago. The distillery is modern, of course, and its design had enough merit to receive the approval of the Royal Fine Art Commission. It lies on a plateau 880 feet (268m) up in the hills below the village. During the winter the contractors always had two weeks’ worth of building materials to hand so that work could continue if they were cut off from the outside world and purpose-built braziers enabled construction to go ahead even in 10 degrees of frost. Tomintoul was only the third new distillery to be built this century.

Production water is soft and is drawn from a spring. There are two pairs of stills, the second pair having been added in 1974. Stocks of whisky at the distillery now comprise 80,000 casks, going back to the first year of distillation in 1965.

Tomintoul is a medium-peated, light whisky with a pleasant bite and quite marked fragrance. It is fruity and spicy rather than malty and woody although these attributes do show through as background. The whisky was first released as a self whisky on the 10th anniversary of the distillery’s opening. It is bottled by the proprietors at eight and 12 years and one of the independents recently came up with a 20-year-old. The Tomintoul make is used in all Whyte & Mackay blends. Source of water
Ballantruan Spring