The year 1824 saw the establishment of some of Scotland’s most illustrious malt whisky distilleries, including The Glenlivet, Macallan, and Cardhu — all founded in the wake of the previous year’s Excise Act, which stimulated legal distilling in the Highlands.
But there is another distillery celebrating a bicentenary this year whose name is rarely mentioned alongside those Speyside giants: Cameronbridge in Fife, which produces grain spirit for owner Diageo’s blended whiskies, along with Gordon’s and Tanqueray gin and Smirnoff vodka.
The relative anonymity of Cameronbridge is not surprising. Grain distilleries have always been the workhorses of the whisky industry, usually lacking the visual glamour of their malt-making counterparts, located in places far from the principal tourist trails, and with little or no liquid presence in the marketplace.
While Scotland currently boasts more than 140