Royal Lochnagar

In 1823 kwam de 'Excise Act' tot stand die de accijnzen verminderde op whisky, omdat omstreeks 1820 meer dan de helft van de Schotse whiskyproduktie illegaal werd gemaakt.

De Duke of Gordon, de grootste landeigenaar in de Centrale Hooglanden, kon de regering ervan overtuigen dat als de accijns geheven op de whisky naar een meer acceptabel niveau werd gebracht, de legale distilleerderijen beter zouden kunnen concureren met de illegale stokers en per saldo de regering een grotere opbrengst zou krijgen indien de illegale stokers legaal zouden gaan produceren en ook gingen bijdragen aan de accijnzen.

James Robertson te Crathie, eerder een illegale stoker met een distilleerderij in Glen Feardan, ten noorden van de Dee ging legaal stoken en zijn distilleerderij werd meteen door illegale stokers in brand gestoken. Hij begon een nieuwe distilleerderij die hij Lochnagar noemde, dat was in 1826.

Maar geheel naar lokale tradities werd Lochnagar op 12 Mei 1841 door zijn illegale collega's in brand gestoken. Toen hield James Robertson het voor gezien.

In 1845 kreeg John Begg een huurcontract voor lange termijn op een stuk grond op een andere plaats en noemde de distilleerderij ook Lochnagar.

Drie jaar later nam Koningin Victoria voor het eerst haar intrek in haar nieuwe zomer-verblijf Balmoral, een mijl verwijderd van Lochnagar en John Begg schreef een brief naar haar privé secretaris Mr. G.E. Anson waarin hij de koningin met haar man Prince Albert uitnodigde voor een bezoek. Dat bezoek vond plaats en was blijkbaar een succes want binnen een paar dagen kreeg John Begg een 'Royal Warrant of Appointment'.

Royal Lochnagar was en is een heel goede single malt whisky, er werd uitgebreid en wat later werd John Begg één van de pioniers in het blenden.

John Begg stierf in 1880.

Zijn enige zoon Henri Farquharson Begg miste de energie van zijn vader en benoemde een direkteur en voor zijn dood in 1896 vormde hij een trust waarin zijn kinderen ieder een gelijk deel kregen.

In 1902 werd Royal Lochnagar een 'limited liability company'.
In 1906 verhuisden bottel- en blendingafdelingen naar Glasgow en Royal Lochnagar werd heRbouwd en van nieuwe installaties voorzien.
Tussen 1914 - 1918 kocht The Distillers Company Ltd (D.C.L) alle aandelen op van John Begg Ltd.
Royal Lochnagar was gesloten van 1917 - 1919 en weer gedurende de tweede wereldoorlog.
In 1951 werd Royal Lochnagar aangesloten op het electriciteitsnet.
In 1969 werden de ketels, tot dan met kolengestookt, verhit met stoom.
In 1990 werd er een bezoekerscentrum gebouwd.
De twee ketels hebben een kapaciteit van ruim 300.000 liter spirit per jaar.

Het water komt van bronnen in Lochnagar Mountain en er is een grote dam achter de distilleerderij, waarachter het koelwater wordt opgeslagen.

Er bestaat een Schots grapje waarbij wordt gevraagd hoe diep Lochnagar is, Lochnagar is geen 'Loch' maar de berg, 155 meter hoog.

Op het etiket wordt vermeld 'By Appointment to the late Queen Victoria, the late King Edward VII and the late King George V'.

John Begg was een vriend van William Sanderson en veel van Royal Lochnagar gaat in de blend VAT 69.

De eigen blend van Royal Lochnagar is John Begg Blue Cap.

Het gebruikte water komt van bronnen op Royal Lochnagar.
Er staat éên Mash tun van 5,4 ton. De twee Wash backs zijn elk 27000 liter.
De Wash still is groot 6700 liter, de Spirit still 3720 liter en worden met stoom verhit.

Guinness nam Arthur Bell & Sons Ltd in 1986 over en in 1987 The Distillers Compant Ltd. (D.C.L.). Beiden tegen hun zin. In 1988 werden beide groepen van bedrijven samengevoegd en de nieuwe naam werd United Distillers Limited.

Op 12 Mei 1997 staakt de Fransman Bernard Arnault van L M V H zijn verzet tegen de fusie voor een afkoopsom van ƒ 800.000.000.

De nieuwe naam van de gefuseerden zou eerst G M G Brands worden, maar op 22 Oktober werd bekend dat de naam Diageo zou worden, afgeleid van het Latijnse woord voor dag en het Griekse woord voor wereld.

Diageo wordt het grootste drankenconcern ter wereld, groter dan Seagram em Allied Domecq samen en met een omzet van 40 miljard gulden.

Op 28 Maart 1998 verkoopt Diageo het whiskymerk Dewar en het ginmerk Bombay voor E 1,15 miljard aan Bacardi Martini.

Het afstoten van de twee merken was een voorwaarde die door de Amerikaanse mededingingsautoriteiten was gesteld aan de goedkeuring van de fusie tussen Guinness en Grand Metropolitan.

Dewar heeft een omzet van ruim één miljard gulden en een marktaandel van 10 %. Het merk is marktleider in de V.S.

Diageo is de overkoepelende naam voor vier company's: United Distillers & Vintners, (U.D.V.), Pilsbury. Guinness en Burger King.

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In 1823 the Government saw the light and passed an Excise Act reducing the duty to a moderate level. One of the illicit distillers who took out a licence was James Robertson of Crathie. He is said to have had a distillery in Glen Feardan, north of the Dee. According to local tradition, it was burned to the ground by unlicensed distillers. Robertson built a distillery called Lochnagar, where he was first recorded as licence-holder in 1826-27. It too was burned, as the Aberdeen Journal reported on 12th May 1841:

"FIRE AT LOCHNAGAR DISTILLERY - On Thursday morning last, at four o'clock, the premises were discovered to be on fire; and, notwithstanding the greatest exertions, the whole of the distillery house, malt barn, kiln, and store-rooms, with all ' their contents, were reduced to embers. Where or how the fire originated remains a mystery... "

Then, in 1845, John Begg was granted a long lease by the Abergeldie Estate of another site on which he built a new Lochnagar distillery. Three years later, Queen Victoria took up residence for the first time at Balmoral, half a mile away as the crow flies, and Begg made a significant entry in his diary: "I wrote a note on the 11th September to Mr. G.E. Anson (Her Majesty's Private Secretary) stating that the distillery was now in full operation, and would be so until six o'clock next day, and knowing how anxious H.R.H. Prince Albert was to patronise and make himself acquainted with everything of a mechanical nature, I should feel much pleasure in show him the works ... Next day ... I observed Her Majesty and the Prince Consort approaching. I ran and opened the door, when the Prince said, 'We have come to see through your work, Mr. Begg'". After all stages in the process of transforming barley into a distilled spirit had been explained to the visitors, John Begg asked Prince Albert whether "he would like to taste the spirit in its matured state, as we had cleared some that day from bond, which I thought was very fine. H.R.H. having agreed to this, I called for a bottle and glasses (which had been previously in readiness) and, presenting one glass to Her Majesty, she tasted it," followed by Prince Albert, and their three eldest children. The visit must have been a success, because it was followed within days by the grant of a Royal Warrant of Appointment as a supplier to the Queen.

Lochnagar was and is a very fine whisky and commanded a high price. To meet the growth of de-mand, the distillery was enlarged; warehouses and executive offices were acquired in Aberdeen; and finally, with the rise of the trade in blended Scotch whisky.

Begg became a pioneer of that industry too. By the time of his death in 1880 he had developed a large trade in blended and bottled whisky both at home and abroad.

His only son, Henry Farquharson Begg, lacked his father's driving energy and appointed a manager to look after his interests. Before he died in 1896, he had created a trust of the business in which each of his children benefited equally.

By 1902 it became apparent that the business was too complex to be satisfactorily operated as a trust. It was accordingly decided to turn it into a private limited liability company: John Begg Ltd. As Aberdeen lacked adequate facilities for the direct shipment of export orders, the blending and bottling operation was transferred to Glasgow in 1906. Lochnagar Distillery was rebuilt and re-equipped in the same year.

Midway through the war of 1914-18 negotiations were opened with The  Distillers  Company Limited,  which was  seeking to enlarge its export trade in blended whisky. DCL consequently acquired all the shares owned by the Begg family, and obtained a transfer of the lease of the distillery. In common with other malt whisky distilleries, Lochnagar was closed from 1917 to 1919 in the interest of conserving barley for foodstuffs, and closed again, for the same reason, for the greater part of the second world war.

Lochnagar's serene environment has remained unspoiled for many years, but there have been inevitable changes in its communications and in its domestic economy. Until the Great War, barley, coal and empty casks were brought in from Ballater railway station by horse and cart, and whisky was despatched by the same means. Steam lorries replaced the horse and cart in the 1920's: forty years later, the Deeside railway line was closed.

The distillery was lighted by paraffin lamps or by gas carbide flame until a generator was installed in 1949, followed by connection with the national grid a year or two later. Water-wheels, supplemented by a steam engine, continued to drive some of the machinery until the distillery was reequipped in 1963. The tun-room was then enlarged, the height of the stillhouse was raised, and the coal-burning furnaces of the two hand-fired stills were converted to mechanical stoking. The mash house was rebuilt in 1967 and the stills converted to internal heating by steam two years later.

The distillery covers a site of 3 to 4 acres (1.2 to 1.6 hectares). Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd., a Distillers Company subsidiary, owns 5 houses for occupation by employees of the distillery and holds the lease of Lochnagar Farm. The juxtaposition of the distillery and the farm steading commemorates the origin of malt whisky distilling as a sideline to farming. Today the stables, byres, corn lofts, hay lofts and turnip sheds are empty or used as distillery stores. They are solidly built, like the distillery buildings, from local granite.

The distillery's water supply comes from springs in the foothills of Lochnagar mountain. The large dam at the back of the distillery is used to store cooling water. The dam holding process water is located uphill.
John Begg Ltd., Glasgow, blenders of John Begg Blue Cap and John Begg de luxe Scotch whiskies, holds the licence. They bottle Lochnagar as a single malt whisky and the remainder of the output is used for blending.
Second (revised) edition

A special release of precious few individually numbered bottles, drawn from selected
casks held in reserve to commemorate the very day of Queen Victoria's visit to Royal
Lochnagar in 1 8 4 8.

Rich and memorable, this LIMITED  EDITION selected reserve is deep amber in colour,
with a well - rounded character. It is complex, subtle, elegant and sophisticated, as a
connoisseur's approval most surely demands.

When Queen Victoria came here with Prince Albert in 1848, she unknowingly made it
possible to create the whisky in this hand - crafted box. For Royal Lochnagar, named
in honour of her visit, became famous and prospered, although one of Scotland's
smallest distilleries.

Drawing water from a stream that flows through Balmoral Estate and with its exquisite
little  copper pot - stills, this selected malt whisky still has a privileged start in life,
enhanced by hand - crafting and long fermentation.

Fine ageing in refill sherry butts and casks hand - selected for bottling on the anniversary
of that first royal visit has given this INDIVIDUALLY  NUMBERED  LIMITED  EDITION
selected reserve its richly wooded, fruity nose, smooth mouthfeel and refined, well
rounded character.