Adelphi～獨立裝瓶廠

Adelphi

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 our highly experienced nosing team in the pursuit of excellence.

From left to right: Alex Bruce (Sales & Marketing Director), Liz Macdonald (Company Secretary), Keith Falconer (Chairman), Donald Houston (Director).

 Adelphi Dancey Man flutters in the wind above Glenborrodale Castle

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 the diameter. The whole was dominated by huge circular chimney with a flared top.

Unlikely as it seems. Loch Katrine 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.

Adelphi Distillery Ltd光看名字應該和裝瓶廠是連結不到一塊,早在1826年Adelphi業已成立, Adelphi也曾自行蒸餾穀物和麥芽威士忌去生產調和威士忌,只不過蒸餾廠經營權多次轉手更迭,時至今日Adelphi僅專注於獨立專瓶廠的業務。

Adelphi和許多獨立裝瓶廠一樣,強調不冷凝過濾,不焦糖上色,此外堅持單桶並且不經稀釋、維持原酒精濃度方式裝瓶。不過最讓Adelphi引已自豪的是,在Charles Maclean幫忙訓練下,建立了優異的選酒團隊,藉由選酒團隊嚴格的把關,每次從蒸餾廠中挑酒,幾乎僅10%機率能被Adelphi選入。或許是這個緣故,Signatory或Duncan Taylor相比, Adelphi的裝瓶數量要少很多,Adelphi裝出膾炙人口的酒或許不多,但多能維持一定水準,如果想嚐不熟悉蒸餾廠的酒款時,選擇Adelphi裝瓶的酒,大概不容易發生讓人太過遺憾的慘案,算是間相當有原則的公司。