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22 October 2008
Labour of love
By
Tim Power
The voluptuous curves of the two bell-bottom copper stills - the soul of the distillery - have been cleaned out and the joints are being welded watertight. The leaking roof is being repaired. The peeling walls are being painted and the original 1960s office woodwork cleaned and varnished back to its former glory.
This is just a fraction of the work that has been under way over the past several months in preparation for the production of a new generation of malts at Glenglassaugh Distillery.
At first glance, it looks like the distillery near Portsoy on the north Aberdeenshire coast has suffered at the hands of the harsh North Sea weather since being mothballed in 1986.
But, on closer inspection, despite having to negotiate puddles of water and drips from the leaky roof, it is clear that it is coming back to life after 22 years of neglect and exposure to the elements.
The barley hopper that looms above the cast-iron mash tun like a giant Meccano set, is in fine fettle. The dust-coated tun itself is solid enough, though missing its false floor which was stolen in a break-in years ago. A visit to the washback room shows everything is spick and span while a peek into the wooden washbacks brings a faint malty smell and a tantalising taste of what is to come.
Stuart Nickerson, the new Glenglassaugh managing director, is the man with the labour of love, and a tight timetable, to breathe life into the 133-year-old distillery.
He takes obvious pride in his endeavours as he gives Unfiltered a guided tour of the distillery. But there's obviously still plenty of work to be done before its official opening on 24 November - the two traditionally shaped stills sit among chaos, the room littered with a twisted tangle of metal pipes and abandoned wiring. Stuart, who was recently accepted as a Keeper of the Quaich, explains: "Although the distillery equipment is in a fairly good condition, the boiler, steam condensate pressure system and electrics have to be totally replaced.
"It's not just their age and condition. They were built in a time unencumbered by all the environmental and health and safety legislation that we have today."
Glenglassaugh is being resurrected thanks to a £5 million lifeline from its new owners the Scaent Group - a diversified Scandinavian investment group with interests in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe - together with start-up funding from Barclays.
The distillery was founded in 1875, but has had a chequered history of production in the 20th century when it was closed between 1907-1959. It was revived in 1960 by owners Edrington but was mothballed in 1986 because of a glut in the whisky market.
During its erratic production history, the light and smooth Glenglassaugh whisky has rarely had the chance to shine as a single malt, as the majority of production has been used in blends such as Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark.
However, single malt bottlings have been made, the last by Edrington in 1984 which was a 30-year-old malt called "The Family Silver" which revealed the potential of the distillery to produce more malts of its own. the Society bottles single casks too from time to time.
"It's a pretty unique malt and is well regarded by whisky aficionados. Although it is smooth and light, it has real complexity in its flavour with floral and citrus notes. It ages well and in sherry casks it has a real Christmas cake character to it."
Although the distillery is not yet in production, the consortium is already sitting on a gold mine with a number of 30 and 40-year-old malts lying in the warehouse. Stuart says they are exceptional. "The 30-year-old is really, really good and the 40-year-old
a wonder!"
While he is not giving away too many details at the present, the consortium is keen to market these rare single malts sometime next year, particularly in Russia and Eastern Europe.. But before that, Stuart acknowledges that there's still plenty of work to be done: "It's a challenging job to bring a distillery back to life, but it's also exciting - especially for a distillery that has produced such a unique and high quality malt that I believe beats anything from any region in Scotland!"
"The best job in the world"
The images on the walls of the pub celebrate the 30-year long career at Glenglassaugh of James Mills, father of the pub's new owner, Sandra Hill. James Mills started at the distillery when it opened in 1960 as a cooper, part of a team of seven, building and repairing casks for the first new vintage of whisky produced at the distillery since the 1930s. James' wife Elma brought up Sandra and the rest of her siblings in one of the small Victorian cottages at the distillery site, originally without the comfort of electricity or hot water, and with an outside "thunderbox". Despite the initial hardships, the family loved life at the distillery. "James used to say it was the best job in the world", said Elma. "He loved working there and we were all very sad when the distillery eventually closed. It was a real community and everyone was very friendly - we created our own world."
At its peak, Glenglassaugh employed around 20 people and was home to nine families in the converted cottages on site that, by the mid 1960s, had all the mod cons of electricity and central heating.
A spirited story
While the historic distillery was brought into the modern age, it was rumoured that some much older entity was uncomfortable with such progress.
"No one would admit it but we all knew the distillery was haunted," explained Elma. "Workers heard whispering near the wash backs and the brewer's dogs would never go near this place. You see, part of the distillery was built on tumuli which was thought to be the burial site of a druid chief."
Nevertheless, it was the presence of another type of spirit that kept the Glenglassaugh workers happy because in those days they were all entitled to three drams a day of the product of their hard graft - and it was 128 proof!
A new start
When the distillery closed, it was the end of an era for Elma and James. They went to live in Portsoy and James found other work. "James said it was never the same - he loved to work with wood, and as a professional cooper he took pride in his work at the distillery."
Of course, locals in Portsoy were delighted to hear that the £5 million investment to reopen the distillery is expected to create up to 20 jobs, and they can appreciate that a planned visitor centre at the distillery will help bring in more visitors to the picturesque 17th century harbour town. James passed away in 2006, but his legacy and those of his fellow workers throughout the 133 years of Glenglassaugh Distillery's life are celebrated for all to see in the pub.
Glenglassaugh ~ community spirit
The ebb and flow. With a name like the Shore Inn, the chance visitor could be forgiven for thinking the 18th-century pub overlooking the old stone harbour of Portsoy, would be full of nautical bric-a-brac.
But, strangely, as you stand in the public bar, it's not pictures of the village's long departed fishing fleet and the hardy souls who brought home the famous "silver darlings" from the North Sea, that catch the eye.
Instead, the imagination is captured by the faded photographs of the men who sourced the village's other lifeblood: not glittering baskets of herring this time, but images of a golden era when whisky gently flowed from the stills of the nearby Glenglassaugh Distillery.
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