A rose by any other name
- Gavin Smith
- January 13 2025
Things have changed a bit since Rosebank Distillery closed in 1993. Dave Broom discovers what happens when a legendary distillery reopens.
The ghosts of old distilleries haunt Scotland. Piles of stones suggestive of an illicit bothy,
some repurposed sites and a few decaying remnants acting as silent reminders of the cyclical nature of Scotch and warnings of overreach.
Most of the latter group were collateral damage from the crash of the late 1970s and early 80s. Names now revered: Port Ellen, Brora, Convalmore North Port, St. Magdalene, Millburn, Glen Mhor, Glenury-Royal… and Rosebank.
“The King of the Lowlands,” Michael Jackson called it and the cognoscenti agreed. Was ever a distillery so well named? Fragrant, delicately fruity but with an almost sticky quality to it that gave it persistence. When tasted it stayed in the mouth – and in the mind.
Rosebank survived the first cull but fell victim to the pivot that Scotch took as the major distilling groups began to view the possibilities of single malt. Not just as brands, but as places to visit. It was central to the decisions in 1988 surrounding United Distillers’ Classic Malts range.
Single malt was about a totality of experience, not just what was in the bottle. There was a new consumer who played a vital role in the brands’ potential success. Its closure also shows the continuing fragility of the industry at the time.
Rosebank undoubtedly had the quality of spirit but (and this is nothing personal against Falkirk) it was on a wedge of land between a disused canal, a housing scheme and a roundabout.
No space for cars and anyway (once more Falkirk, I’m sorry) who in their right mind would go on a day out there? If tourists were to visit a Lowland distillery out of the six, surely they would head south to the Lothian barley fields and Glenkinchie? In 1993 it was goodbye Rosebank. The king had been dethroned.
It was an ignominious end for a distillery which began (this is disputed) in 1798 or 1817. The location was well chosen. The Union canal could bring in coal and barley (which would be malted at the Camelon site on the canal’s other bank) while casks could go out either east to Leith’s blending houses, or west along the Forth & Clyde canal to those in Glasgow. A founding member of Scottish Malt Distillers in 1914, it was absorbed into Distillers Company Limited (DCL) five years later.
Though a respected servant for blends, there was a glimmer of life for Rosebank as a single malt in 1982 with the launch of DCL’s Ascot Malt Cellar, where it (as an 8yo) shared a case with Linkwood 12yo, Talisker 8yo, Lagavulin 12yo and two vatted malts, Strathconon and Glenleven.
In 2002, the site was purchased by British Waterways (now Scottish Canals). In the same year the Falkirk Wheel replaced the dozen old locks which linked the now reopened Union and the Forth & Clyde canals. In 2013, the Kelpies, two massive sculptures of horses’ heads, were erected beside the canal. Falkirk was a destination, but Rosebank remained silent.
In 2017, Ian Macleod’s MD Leonard Russell was driving past and realised that when it had closed there was a stipulation that distilling could not take place for 25 years. The time was up. He contacted Diageo to see if they might sell. Now, Diageo famously does not sell its distilleries. This time it was different.
“Put it this way,” says Leonard. “We had something they wanted in terms of stock and they had something we would like. It was a mutually agreeable deal. Just having the stock in isolation would have been OK, because it would only gain in value, but rescuing the distillery was a dream.”
Rosebank was the third of the ghosts to reappear alongside Diageo’s Brora and Port Ellen. It begs the question, why now? The answer lies in the human need to hold on to memories. The distillery may have gone, but as long as the liquid existed there was something tangible.
As the single malt community grew, the demand for ghost distillery bottlings rose, as did their price. Could the reopening tap into this new interest? There is a romantic way of looking at this – reopening as a wholly emotional decision, but there are also hard-nosed business reasons.
Rosebank reopened in 2024. It is essentially a new build. The old distillery was demolished and another constructed. The old maltings and warehouse have become the visitor centre, tasting rooms and offices. What was a cramped space has been transformed into something airy and welcoming. It breathes.
“That was the point,” says Leonard. “You couldn’t have taken tours around it as it was, so we fitted the distillery around the tours – and there’s space for expansion should we want to.”
All the kit, bar the mill, is new and also now on a single level. The job of making it work was in the hands of Distillery Manager, Malcolm Rennie. With a career that’s taken in Bruichladdich and then Ardbeg before opening Kilchoman, Annandale and Lochlea, he has experience in new builds.
The mash tun gives very clear wort, to help with fruitiness, which is then fermented in one of the eight wooden washbacks. “I cried when I saw them go into place,” Leonard recalls. It is the stills which draw your eye, however.
Rosebank is triple distilled but the stills used are a weird collection. The wash still has a flat top, the intermediate one is tall with a thin, tapering neck, while the spirit still is a fat, dumpy creature.
“They’re wild,” says Malcolm. “I thought they’d put them in the wrong order when I saw them being installed. Common sense says the intermediate should be the spirit still. It just doesn’t make sense.”
They are the same design as the originals but made larger (in the case of the wash still, half as large again) and are all under-charged to give more reflux. The key, as Malcolm explains, is to get Rosebank’s signature fruit and flowers.
While the wash is run as normal, the final five per cent of the intermediate still’s run is retained. The middle cut from the spirit still starts at 81 per cent and goes down to a very precise 73.5 per cent. “We did a trial,” he explains, “74 per cent was not quite there but 73 per cent was too much. The sweet spot was in the middle.”
To make matters stranger, after all the efforts to maximise reflux and build in delicacy, each still runs into worm tubs, which normally make things heavy. It confounds received wisdom. Keeping the worms warm, however, keeps any sulphur and meatiness away, but still adds weight. As Malcolm says: “It doesn’t seem to make sense but put it all together, it comes together miraculously and makes Rosebank, Rosebank.”
The result is a bright new make with floral touches, apricot skin, lemon peel and, with water added, green notes and a little malt. Texturally it’s already thick. The fragrance, the flowers, the fruit already in place.
Is this a recreation or something else? “We’d never be able to replicate it,” says Malcolm. “I think of it as a reimagining in the style of the old Rosebank.”
It is true. You can never go back and merely copying would simply be zombie distilling, not utilising all of what has happened to whisky in the intervening years to increase quality while remaining true to character.
“We can’t say it’s being replicated because everything has moved since it closed,” adds Leonard. “Yeast, barley, the stills being slightly larger, but we are striving to get as close to the Rosebank character, otherwise what would be the point?”
Does that then add to the responsibility? “When you take on an iconic distillery like this, you can’t muck it up,” says Leonard. “We know that. It’s the ‘King of the Lowlands’. That’s something, isn’t it?”
As for when we might see the first fruit, it is a matter of wait and see. “We’ll be patient,” he adds. “Certainly we won’t release it as a three-year-old. It was sold as an eight-year-old, so maybe that will be the same. There again, if it’s 12 years before it’s right, then we’ll wait for 12 years.”
Can any others open? In July 2023, Aceo announced that it was starting up Dallas Dhu. Might we see Parkmore (silent since 1931) start up again? Could William Grant & Sons revive Convalmore?
If they do, they will be faced with the questions facing Ian Macleod and Diageo of how to manage a reopened cult distillery? Can you piggyback on its status and price the new whisky according to auction prices, or should it first prove itself? Should the gates be locked to all
but the wealthy because of finite stock and status or, as with Rosebank, be open to all? Big decisions.
I wonder if Rosebank’s relative lack of attention allows Ian Macleod a period of grace while the whisky matures, whereas with the higher profile Port Ellen and Brora, people are itching to try… and then compare.
Ultimately though, all three have to earn their stripes. No pressure!
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