Somewhere along the way in my single malt Scotch journey, I decided I wanted to try at least one expression from every single malt distillery in Scotland. You might think, “Well, easy-peasy!” and if we were talking about Ireland, or Japan, or Canada, that would probably still be fair, or fair-ish. In fact when I came to that resolution, it would likely have been pretty easy to sample from every single American whiskey maker. But even around the turn of the millennium, when I started drinking single malt, there were around 90 active malt distilleries in Scotland, give or take several, and by the time I decided that I wanted to try everything, there were already several new distilleries in Scotland. More than that, many distilleries have limited bottlings that simply aren’t distributed to the United States, least of all states like New Mexico. 

Fortunately, New Mexico is one of the US states where it is legal to receive shipments of alcohol from overseas. Further, there are numerous online retailers in the UK and areas of northwestern Europe that stock vast selections of single malt and are happy to ship. Most fortunately of all, my girlfriend (now wife) was happy to help me out, buying bottles for me to add to my collection as presents for almost every special occasion. By the mid-2010s, when I really got serious about tasting something from every distillery, I was already getting close to the goal, with only a handful of obscure, rarely available whiskies like Allt-a-bhainne, Braeval/Braes of Glenlivet, Tamnavulin, and pre-Billy Walker era Glenallachie left to taste.

Of course, by that time some new distilleries had cropped up since I’d tasted my first malt: Abhainn Dearg on the outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis, Kilchoman, the first new Islay distillery in more than a century, and several others; my own growing interest in single malt coincided with the largest boom and flurry of new buildings since the late 19th century.

Still, I got close enough to tasting at least one expression from every active distillery (I think that when I tasted my first Glenallachie, the only distillery active at the time that I hadn’t tasted from was Abhainn Dearg), that I began a new quest: tasting at least one expression from every distillery that had closed within recent memory.

With time, dedication, a comfortable income, and international shipping, trying at least something from every active distillery is doable. Abhainn Dearg is difficult, even the reliable UK retailers rarely stock any, and Daftmill has very limited output and generates a lot of buzz, so it’s hard to get your hands on as well; I’ve tasted neither.

Things get harder with closed distilleries. Stocks are fundamentally scarce, and with the lively interest in whisky since the turn of the century, there is huge pressure on those scarce remaining stocks. Also, most of the distilleries that closed within recent memory did so in the early to mid-1980s; it’s only a matter of time before their remaining stocks from their last few years of operation evaporate away to below 40% abv. The increasing scarcity of whisky from vanished distilleries means that such whiskies are hard to find, and command a premium price when you can find them at all.

But…where there’s a will, there’s a way. Over the years I’ve managed to rustle up a bottle from almost every distillery that closed in the last 45 years or so. There are exceptions. In the 60s and 70s, many large grain distilleries in the Lowlands built short-lived malt distilleries onsite, mainly to provide fillings for blends. I have a bottle from Inverleven (one such facility), however, I haven’t made much effort to get my hands on the likes of Kinclaith or Ladyburn. Bottlings tend to be rare, extremely expensive (even by defunct distillery standards), and the distilleries don’t carry the same mystique as free-standing lost distilleries with long and storied histories.

It has been quite common over the years for a long-established distillery to build an entirely new facility on the premises and then phase out the old iteration. A historical accident meant that when the old Clynelish distillery closed and was replaced by its modern version, a storied single malt brand was born: a shortage of peated Islay whisky meant that the old plant was briefly fired up again to provide peated make for blends, and due to changes in regulations around naming, instead of just being designated as Clynelish II, it was rebranded as Brora. When Islay’s production had recovered, Brora was no longer needed, and it was closed, but its brief period making heavily peated whisky has fascinated malt connoisseurs for years now. Since Brora whisky has tended to seem to me like a unnecessarily expensive version of the readily available Clynelish, I never did try too hard to get a hold of a bottle of Brora; and now that both distilleries are operating in tandem, I can look forward to buying some Brora from the revived distillery a ways down the road.

Aside from Brora and the sundry Lowlanders that were part of large grain plants, there are only a handful of closed distilleries I haven’t either tasted from, or have an unopened bottle from: St. Magdalene/Linlithgow, Hillside/Glenesk, and Ben Wyvis. I’ve tasted Imperial, Littlemill, Convalmore, Glen Albyn, and more, and I have unopened bottles from Millburn, Banff, and others.

At this point, I have to resign myself to the fact that I may never taste Ben Wyvis or St. Magdalene, let alone anymore of those industrial Lowlanders…and of course, there’s a new challenge afoot for any single malt completionist: the plethora of new distilleries  that have come online in the past 10 to 15 years, many of which have released inaugural whiskies as soon as they’re able to!

Releases from brand new distilleries are usually easier to come by than whiskies from the long lost victims of the mid-80s ‘Whisky Loch’, especially if you don’t insist on getting the actual inaugural release. I’m mostly up to date on new stuff coming down the pike, although as noted, I’ve missed out on Abhainn Dearg and Daftmill so far since both tend to be hard to find, and outrageously expensive when you do find them. 

As I write this, I’d still like to be able to say that I’ve had at least one whisky from every single distillery that has been active in Scotland for the past 50-60 years; the ones that closed, the ones that have been plugging along all the while, and the ones that have been starting their distilling lives in the last 10-15 years. Of course, once I could say that, I’d probably start getting a crazy ambition to say I’d had at least 2, or 5, or 10 different whiskies from each of those distilleries (and there are some distilleries from which I’ve tasted 5 or 10 or 15 expressions…). And with my still nascent but growing interest in American whiskies, things could get pretty wild on that front, too. But I have already tasted from a formidable array of Scottish distilleries (around 130 as of this writing). My focus for the foreseeable future will be on keeping up with releases from new distilleries, more expansively revisiting other operating distilleries, and when I really want to splurge, trying to add missing lost distilleries to my collection.