Adelphi Distillery – the story

Founded in 1826, the Adelphi Distillery is now Scotland’s most acclaimed independent bottler of single casks of rare malt whisky. Under new ownership, Adelphi continues to bottle straight from the finest casks without colouring or chill filtration.

Remaining completely independent, Adelphi is able to offer bottlings from an extensive range of distilleries with Charles Maclean chairing the highly experienced nosing team in the pursuit of excellence.

Adelphi was established by the Gray brothers, Charles and David, in 1826 on what had been a two-acre orchard. It stood just south of the Clyde's Victoria Bridge on the northern edge of the Gorbals.

The Gray family operated the distillery throughout its existence, but around 1880 its ownership was acquired by Messrs A. Walker and Co, who already owned two big distilleries in Liverpool and Limerick respectively. Walkers injected new capital and expanded the works to include a large Coffey still to make grain spirit. In 1886, the Coffey still and four pot stills were all in full production, with an annual output of 516,000 gallons. It had ten 16,000 gallon washbacks, with two more under construction. Three wash charges held 45,000 gallons in all, the wash stills 6,000 gallons each and the spirit stills 4,500 gallons each. It had six steam engines - the largest massive brute of 80 horse power - and six boilers ranging in size up to 28 by nine feet in diameter. The whole was dominated by huge circular chimney with a flared top.

Unlikely as it seems Adelphi was one of the first victims of Edwardian rationalisation after the late-Victorian boom. It was bought by DCL in 1902 and between then and 1907 distilling ceased. Its history since then is vague, but the distillery buildings were not in fact demolished until 1968-70, with the chimney coming down in 1971. The bonded warehouses stayed in use for many years, though they too are now gone and indeed Inverkip Street itself is no more. - extract from Brian Townsend's 'Scotch Missed - The Lost Distilleries of Scotland' published in 1993.

In 1993, the great-grandson of Archibald Walker, Jamie, revived the Adelphi name as an independent bottler. Jamie was determined not to sacrifice quality for volume, and he was equally adamant that this should be continued when he sold the company in 2004.

Keith Falconer and his neighbour in Argyll, Donald Houston, had approached Jamie on a recommendation, to buy a hogshead of whisky. In fact, they were so impressed that they ended up buying the whole company. After 25 years of working as a chartered accountant and fund manager, Keith was looking for a more entrepreneurial kind of challenge. Donald, like Keith, had backed off from fulltime involvement in his global engineering business, and was equally excited to be involved in the whisky trade.

The new team has been rounded off by Alex Bruce and Liz Macdonald. Whisky is in Alex’s blood. His mother, an Usher, is a direct descendant of Andrew Usher who is credited with pioneering blended whisky, and his father, Lord Elgin, is a patron and former Grand Master of the Keepers of the Quaich. Alex was also made a Keeper of the Quaich in 2006. He has trained with Remy Martin and J&B, and latterly headed up a new office for Friarwood Fine Wines in Scotland. Liz is former P.A. to the Beatles, and has joined Adelphi as Company Secretary.

Independence
Remaining completely independent, Adelphi is able to select its single malt whiskies from as many distilleries as possible. Adelphi will only put its name to an outstanding whisky.

Rarity
Adelphi bottles single malt Scotch whiskies from only the very best single casks available. No two casks mature their contents the same, and with only 100-700 bottles produced from one cask, Adelphi single malt bottlings are both rare and highly sought after.

Selection
Adelphi believes that only the very best single cask, single malt whiskies are good enough to be bottled on their own. With the help of whisky guru Charles MacLean it selects a mere 4% of those that are offered.

Purity
Single malt Scotch whisky is normally reduced to 40% vol. on the bottling line and, as a result, has to be chill-filtered to maintain its clarity. Adelphi, however, only bottles at natural strength. This enables the whisky to remain clear without being chill-filtered and allows the customer to unlock the true flavours by adding water in the glass, rather than losing them on the bottling line. Adelphi will only bottle single malt whiskies matured in either ex-bourbon or ex-sherry casks. These are known to be the best vessels for Scotch whisky. Adelphi will never attempt to finish a whisky in any other wood, as this will mask the intrinsic flavours of the spirit. Adelphi never adds colour to its single malt whiskies, and, with the use of minimalist labelling, allows the natural warmth of the whisky to project from the bottle.

Bespoke bottling
In addition, Adelphi selects and bottles single cask single malts for private individuals and corporations, and makes its highly acclaimed Private Stock Blended Scotch Whisky available for bespoke labelling. Unique whiskies, with unique labels, available to the discerning customer.

Adelphi Whiskies are sold at la Casa del Habano Hamburg.