Longmorn

Type: Distillery

In 1897, the National Guardian reported that Longmorn had “jumped into favour with buyers from the earliest day”. Spirit had first flowed here in December 1894, yet almost a century would pass before the distillery released its first official single malt.[1][2][4][7]

Founded by John Duff on flat land near Elgin in Moray, this Speyside malt whisky distillery has a history that reaches well beyond its own still house. It supplied whisky for blends, shared its founder’s fortunes with neighbouring Benriach and became a training ground for Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka.[2][4][6][7]

What Longmorn is known for

Longmorn’s whisky was used in blends long before its official single malt releases. By the early twentieth century, it was going into blends including VAT 69 and Dewar’s. The first official Longmorn single malt, a 15 Year Old, arrived in 1993.[2]

Almost a hundred years separate Longmorn’s first spirit from that first official release. Its single malt debut marks a new chapter in a much longer whisky making history, not the beginning of production.[2][4][7]

Another connection reaches Japan. Nikka identifies Longmorn as a place where Masataka Taketsuru learned malt whisky making, dating his arrival to April 1919. His training is documented; the familiar claim that Longmorn’s stills inspired those at Nikka belongs to legend.[6][2]

John Duff and the founding of Longmorn

John Duff brought experience of both whisky making and distillery building to Longmorn. Originally from Aberchirder, he had worked at GlenDronach and designed Glenlossie in 1876, establishing an earlier connection with the area’s distilling industry.[2]

His ambitions had also taken him overseas. Histories of Longmorn describe unsuccessful attempts to establish distilling ventures in South Africa and the United States before he founded the distillery with Charles Shirres and George Thomson.[2][4][7]

Two dates appear in accounts of Longmorn’s construction: 1893 and 1894. The sheet records them as conflicting, but also associates company formation and the start of building with 1893, and first production with December 1894. Chivas Brothers’ timeline describes the distillery as built in 1894. The clearest reading keeps the milestones distinct rather than treating the years as interchangeable.[1][2][7]

The enthusiastic reception recorded in the National Guardian in 1897 survives through a later history. It offers a contemporary judgement of Longmorn’s appeal to buyers, rather than a modern tasting assessment.[1]

Story box: Duff’s neighbouring distilleries

Founding story: John Duff founded Longmorn with Charles Shirres and George Thomson; production began in December 1894. Sources: founding record and production account.[7][4]

Turning point: In 1898, Duff decided to build Benriach next door. Producer and trade accounts describe the financial ruin that followed and the sale of both distilleries. Sources: producer’s account and trade history.[3][4]

Documented record: Longmorn and Benriach share a founder and a sale: their business histories were once closely entwined. Claim mapping: foundation and first production, [7][4]; neighbouring development and sale, [3][4][2].

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not established.

Expansion and changing ownership

Duff bought out his partners in 1897, but his independent control was brief. Accounts date the sale to James R. Grant to either 1898 or 1899; the exact year remains disputed in the supplied record.[2][3]

Longmorn later became part of a much larger distilling business. In 1970, the Grant family and blender Hill Thomson merged with The Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries to form The Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd. Seagram acquired the business in 1977. Pernod Ricard then bought Seagram’s Chivas Brothers whisky business in 2001.[9][2]

The connection with The Glenlivet is therefore part of Longmorn’s corporate history, not simply a name encountered in its archives. During this period, the still house grew too, with two stages of expansion in the 1970s.[9][2]

Expansion and changes to heating followed different timetables. More than two decades separated the recorded switch to steam heating for the spirit stills and the same change for the wash stills.[2]

How Longmorn makes its spirit

Unpeated malt and borehole water begin Longmorn’s recorded production process. The specification names Bairds and Boort as malt suppliers and lists a lauter mash tun taking 8.5 tonnes of grist, the ground malt used for mashing.[2]

Fermentation takes place in ten stainless steel washbacks, each holding 39,000 litres, with a recorded fermentation time of 50 hours. Washbacks are the vessels in which fermentation takes place before distillation. The specification, checked in November 2026, describes the equipment and process rather than production on any particular day.[2]

The eight pot stills have onion-shaped bodies: four wash stills and four spirit stills. Wash still size is recorded as 10,800 litres, with a working charge of 9,750 litres; the spirit still charge is 7,200 litres. A charge is the quantity put into a still for a distillation, rather than its total capacity.[2]

The recorded equipment also includes shell and tube condensers. New make spirit, the spirit before maturation, is listed at 72% ABV. Installed capacity is about 4.5 million litres of pure alcohol a year. This is potential production, not actual annual output, in the record checked in November 2026.[2]

Taketsuru at Longmorn

Masataka Taketsuru’s education at Longmorn included listening to its pot stills. According to Nikka, cleaning them taught him to judge the progress of distillation by the sound they made when struck. It is a vivid detail from the producer’s account of its founder’s practical training, rather than an independently recorded observation.[6]

Nikka places Taketsuru at Longmorn in April 1919, learning malt whisky production, before moving to grain whisky at Bo'ness later that year. ScotchWhisky.com instead dates his Longmorn training to 1920. The connection is documented, although the year remains disputed.[6][2]

Verdict badge: the Nikka stills story

Claim: The stills at both Nikka distilleries were modelled on Longmorn’s.

Verdict: Legend.

What the record shows: Taketsuru learned malt whisky making at Longmorn, according to Nikka’s account.[6]

Evidence against or gap: The trade account introduces the still-design connection as “said to be”; the supplied record leaves that central claim unestablished.[2]

Earliest known source: Not established from the sources checked.

Sources: Nikka, The Founder; trade account identified by the sheet.

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not established.

Longmorn as an official single malt

Longmorn’s official single malt story began with the 15 Year Old in 1993. A 16 Year Old followed in 2007, and the record also documents a single cask Longmorn in Chivas Brothers’ Cask Strength series. These releases mark its bottling history rather than define today’s complete range.[2]

A trade account also reports a dedicated following, particularly in Japan, although its supporting source still needs verification before publication.

The original 15 Year Old carried a curious image of its home. According to the trade history, the label pictured the distillery among rugged peaks. Longmorn’s actual setting is flat land near Elgin: a quieter landscape than the illustration suggested.[2]

Where to go next

• Benriach: follow the neighbouring distillery built by John Duff.
• The Glenlivet: explore the name connected with Longmorn’s later group history.
• Glen Grant: continue into another distillery named in the 1970 merger.

Sources

1. Chivas Brothers, producer’s account. Timeline: Chivas Brothers. Undated web timeline, supplied record checked November 2026. https://history.chivasbrothersarchive.com/timeline/
2. Chivas Brothers Archive, producer’s account. The Longmorn-Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd. Undated web history, supplied record checked November 2026. https://history.chivasbrothersarchive.com/family-tree/the-seagram-company-ltd/the-glenlivet-distillery/the-longmorn-glenlivet-distilleries-ltd/
3. Chivas Brothers Archive, producer’s account. Longmorn Historical Timeline. November 2016; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.chivasbrothersarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Longmorn-historical-timeline-final-nov-2016.pdf
4. ScotchWhisky.com Whiskypedia, trade reference. Longmorn. Undated web article, supplied record checked November 2026. https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/1878/longmorn/
5. Nikka Whisky, producer’s account. The Founder. Undated web history, supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.nikka.com/en/story/founder/
6. Wikipedia. Longmorn distillery. Revision not specified in the supplied record, checked November 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmorn_distillery
7. Chivas Brothers Archive, producer’s account. The Glenlivet Distillery. Undated web history, supplied record checked November 2026. https://history.chivasbrothersarchive.com/family-tree/the-seagram-company-ltd/the-glenlivet-distillery/

This piece is desk research based on the supplied Longmorn fact sheet and its source extracts, without a site visit or recorded tasting.

Last checked: November 2026