Glen Spey
Type: Distillery
Four ball-shaped stills, eight steel washbacks and a name that arrived nine years after the distillery: Glen Spey's story begins as Mill of Rothes, built by James Stuart in 1878. W&A Gilbey bought the Rothes distillery in 1887 and gave it the name it bears today. ScotchWhisky.com's published profile supplies the equipment details, including a lauter mash tun. [3]
Glen Spey at a glance
| Field | Record |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland. [3] |
| Locality | Rothes, Moray, AB38 7AT, as listed by ScotchWhisky.com. [3] |
| Area | Speyside, ScotchWhisky.com's trade attribution. [3] |
| Coordinates | Not reliably established. [3] |
| Founded | 1878, as Mill of Rothes. [3] |
| First distillation | Not reliably established. [3] |
| Ultimate parent | Diageo plc, from 1997 according to ScotchWhisky.com. [3] |
| Previous owner group | Grand Metropolitan, 1972 to 1997, according to ScotchWhisky.com. [3] |
| Exact legal owner | Not reliably established. [3][6] |
| Business status | Cannot confirm for the operating entity, checked 5 November 2026. [6] |
| Distilling status | Cannot confirm, checked 5 November 2026. [1][2][3] |
| Visitor access | No public access according to ScotchWhisky.com, checked 5 November 2026. [3] |
| Site status | Not reliably established. |
| Stills | Four, described as ball-shaped. [3] |
| Mash tun | Lauter, published grist quantity 4.4 tonnes. [3] |
| Washbacks | Eight, steel. [3] |
| Water source | “Deonie Burn”, as rendered by ScotchWhisky.com. [3] |
The equipment figures come from ScotchWhisky.com's undated profile, checked in November 2026. They describe the published plant configuration, rather than the findings of a recent inspection. [3]
From Mill of Rothes to Glen Spey
Glen Spey's foundation and its name belong to different chapters. James Stuart built Mill of Rothes in 1878; W&A Gilbey acquired it in 1887 and renamed it Glen Spey. ScotchWhisky.com's chronology makes that nine year interval clear, separating Stuart's foundation from the Gilbey period that followed. [3]
The distinction gives the early history its shape. The distillery dates from 1878, but the Glen Spey name dates from 1887. A separate date for the first distillation has not been established. [3]
Story box: A distillery with two names
Founding story: ScotchWhisky.com's trade history credits James Stuart with building the distillery as Mill of Rothes in Rothes in 1878. Source and claim mapping.
Turning point: The same account dates the sale to W&A Gilbey and the change of name to Glen Spey to 1887. Source and claim mapping.
Documented record: These dates come from the trade reference; the verified record does not establish a separate first-distillation date. Source and claim mapping.
Last checked: 5 November 2026.
Production and ownership timeline
From Stuart's Mill of Rothes to Diageo, the chronology below follows ScotchWhisky.com's historical account. The bottling dates mark recorded releases, not changes in production status. [3]
| Date | Recorded event |
|---|---|
| 1878 | James Stuart builds Mill of Rothes. [3] |
| 1887 | W&A Gilbey acquires the distillery and renames it Glen Spey. [3] |
| 1962 | Ownership chronology moves to International Distillers and Vintners. [3] |
| 1972 | Grand Metropolitan becomes the recorded owner group. [3] |
| 1997 | Ownership chronology moves to Diageo. [3] |
| 2001 | A Flora and Fauna single malt bottling is recorded. [3] |
| 2010 | A 21 year old Special Release is recorded. [3] |
Foundation, ownership and releases each tell a different part of Glen Spey's history. The first establishes the distillery's beginnings; the ownership sequence follows its changing corporate home; the bottlings identify moments when its name appeared on a recorded single malt release. [3] For other individual histories, see the Glenrothes profile, the Glen Grant profile and the Macallan profile.
What Glen Spey is known for
Two named bottlings stand out in the checked trade account: a Flora and Fauna single malt recorded in 2001 and a 21 year old Special Release recorded in 2010. These are the clearest reference points for Glen Spey as a named single malt, alongside the longer history of the distillery. [3]
Read them as historical releases, rather than a current expression list. Their recorded dates establish a place in the bottling history, without indicating present availability or settling the distillery's current production position.
Those specific releases are firmer ground than a tasting description unsupported by the checked account. No house flavour is assigned here, and the 21 year old age statement on the 2010 release is a description of that bottling, not a judgement of its quality.
Inside the published production equipment
Four ball-shaped stills give Glen Spey's published equipment record its most distinctive detail. ScotchWhisky.com also lists a wash still charge of 10,500 litres and a spirit still charge of 7,200 litres. It does not reliably establish how the four stills divide between those duties, so the total and the individual charge figures remain separate pieces of information. [3]
| Equipment | Published detail |
|---|---|
| Stills | Four, ball-shaped. [3] |
| Wash still charge | 10,500 litres. [3] |
| Spirit still charge | 7,200 litres. [3] |
| Mash tun | Lauter, grist quantity 4.4 tonnes. [3] |
| Washbacks | Eight, steel. [3] |
The charge figures describe quantities associated with the stills, not annual output. An annual estimate would also require an operating schedule, which the checked account does not supply; nor does it give a verified annual capacity.
The rest of the equipment record is straightforward: a lauter mash tun with a stated grist quantity of 4.4 tonnes, followed by eight steel fermentation vessels. The source specifies steel without identifying a more particular material. These details describe the published plant without turning its equipment figures into an unsupported production calculation. [3]
For water, ScotchWhisky.com gives the name “Deonie Burn”. That spelling is retained here as the source renders it, rather than replaced with a different name. [3]
Ownership: following the historical chain
Glen Spey's published ownership history runs from James Stuart & Co, covering 1878 to 1887, through W&A Gilbey, International Distillers and Vintners and Grand Metropolitan, before reaching Diageo in 1997. This is ScotchWhisky.com's historical sequence, rather than a set of independently verified legal completion dates. [3]
Diageo's Form 20-F for the year ended 30 June 2026 states that the group owns 31 Scotch whisky distilleries in Scotland. It does not name them individually. The filing therefore describes the scale of the group's Scotch distillery holdings without identifying the precise entity that holds Glen Spey's site or licence. [6]
For company research, three descriptions need to stay distinct: ultimate parent, historical owner group and the legal entity operating the distillery. The trade chronology supplies the parent-group connection. The exact legal owner remains unestablished.
The same distinction governs the business-status check. Diageo plc's annual filing concerns the parent company; the operating entity needed for a Glen Spey-specific check has not been identified. Its business status therefore cannot be confirmed from that filing. [6]
What the November 2026 status check establishes
Glen Spey's distilling status could not be confirmed on 5 November 2026. The sources give different kinds of evidence, but none supplies a dated, authoritative account of a pause, closure or restart. [1][2][3]
The Scotch Whisky Association's September 2026 list of current operating Scotch whisky distilleries does not include Glen Spey. Neither does its corresponding 2026 map. Both were checked for the verified record. Their omission is relevant, but does not by itself date an end to distillation. [1][2]
ScotchWhisky.com's undated profile, meanwhile, labels Glen Spey “Working”. Its historical chronology records nothing after 2010, so that label does not settle the position in November 2026. [3]
The Association's publications establish which distilleries they include at their stated date. The trade profile preserves a description without a dated observation of production status. Read together, they support “cannot confirm”, rather than a choice between an undated working label and an absence from a current list.
Ownership is a separate question. A documented connection to a parent group does not establish whether the stills are running, and the historical chain cannot supply the missing production-status date.
Visitor access
Glen Spey is listed by ScotchWhisky.com as “Not open to the public”, a listing checked on 5 November 2026. This is a reference profile, not a destination for a planned distillery visit or an indication that tours can be booked. [3]
That access listing answers a practical question, not a production question. It does not resolve whether distillation is taking place. No tour facilities or visitor programme are asserted here.
Where to go next
- The Glenrothes: continue with another named distillery profile.
- Glen Grant: follow a second distillery's individual history.
- The Macallan: explore another distillery and its documented record.
Sources
[1] Scotch Whisky Association. List of current operating Scotch Whisky distilleries (September 2026), September 2026 edition.
https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/media/f2fm4u0u/list-of-current-operating-scotch-whisky-distilleries-for-public-website-september-2026.pdf
[2] Scotch Whisky Association. Big Map of Scotch Whisky 2026, September 2026 update.
https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/media/5oxczsyr/092026-update.pdf
[3] ScotchWhisky.com. Glen Spey, Whiskypedia entry, undated, checked November 2026.
https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/1849/glen-spey/
[6] Diageo plc. Form 20-F, fiscal year ended 30 June 2026, 2026.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/835403/000162828026057529/deo-20260630.htm
This desk-researched profile uses the site's verified Glen Spey fact sheet, distinguishing the trade history from dated industry publications and the parent company's filing.
Last checked: November 2026