Innerleven Lowland Whisky Distillery

Innerleven was produced at the Dumbarton distillery which was a monster distillery built by Hiram Walkers Canadian company responsible for Canadian Club. The purpose was to produce single malt whisky for the hugely popular blend Ballantines. During this spending spree in the late 1950’s Hiram Walker also bought Glenburgie, Miltonduff and latterly Scapa for the same purpose. At the time Dumbarton was the largest grain distillery in Europe which also included two stills one producing Innerleven and the other producing Lomond.

Innerleven single malt whisky was made using conventional methods, however its sister whisky Lomond was a pioneer using cooling apparatus to produce a lighter spirit more popular in the USA. This method was expanded by Hiram Walker at the other distilleries he purchased, however these were later removed.

Allied Brewers (latterly Allied Distillers and Allied Domecq) acquired the Dumbarton facility in 1987 and a few years later the grain production for Ballantines was switched to Strathclyde because Dumbarton was too expensive to refurbish. This was the beginning of the end for single malt whisky production in Dumbarton and Innerleven would follow in 1991.  Grain whisky was produced there for a further 14 years until the site was finally mothballed and made way for housing a few years later.

Taste: Not many tastings of single malt are recorded however Independent bottlings have been described as oily, fruity and perfumed.