Banff 1971-2008 - 37 Year Old - Dead Whisky Society - Single Cask 633

Founded in 1824, Banff distillery relocated in 1863 to a new site which burned down in 1877. The distillery was rebuilt and operated until 1932, when the owners went bust. Banff was bought by Diageo forerunners DCL who kept the distillery closed until after WWII. Banff was hit by the Luftwaffe in 1941, destroying much maturing stock, and in 1959 the distillery was badly damaged again by an explosion in the stillhouse. Production resumed once more, but in 1983 DCL closed the distillery during the whisky lake crisis. The distillery buildings were destroyed by fire for the final time in 1991.

Banff’s very old school, astringent Highland whisky was prized by blenders but after the DCL takeover the only official bottling was a 1982 Rare Malts Edition Banff released in 2004, over twenty years after the distillery closed. However, in October 2021 an official bottling of Banff 15-year-old bottled between 1921-32 was found and auctioned by Whisky-Online, fetching £16,200. Independent Banff was easy to find in the 1990s and early Noughties, but has slowed to trickle and the last casks will soon be exhausted.

Independent bottler Dead Whisky Society was founded by Scottish entrepreneur Laura Greig Conway in 2003. The company released only six whiskies in their short history, beginning in 2003 with a 1975 Dallas Dhu and ending with a Cambus 1983 and Caledonian 1976 that appeared in spring 2011. In between came a trio of Banff vintage casks released between 2006-2008. 

Nevertheless, Dead Whisky Society is known to most whisky fans thanks to the extraordinary quality of each of the six whiskies it released. The company’s concept was to bottle great whiskies from Scotland’s lost distilleries, and by that criterion they succeeded - the Banff 1971 and the two grain whiskies are recognised as some of the finest expressions from their respective distilleries ever bottled.