Cameronbridge Cameron Brig

Cameronbridge is one of Europe’s largest distilleries with a capacity, as of 2023, of around 130-150 million litres of spirit per annum. The Cameronbridge distillery was built in 1824 near the Fife town of Windygates by John Haig of the eponymous whisky blending and distilling dynasty and today has several functions, making neutral grain spirit for Tanqueray, Gordon’s and Smirnoff as well as grain whisky for Diageo’s blends and the Haig Club single grain whisky formerly endorsed by David Beckham.

Cameronbridge was one of the original founders of the famous Distillers Company Limited grain whisky cartel and nowadays is Diageo’s only wholly-owned grain whisky distillery, equipped with three Coffey continuous stills each capable of producing 4000 litres per hour. Aside from Haig Club, official bottlings of Cameronbridge’s grain whisky are rare, though in recent years some excellent indie bottlings have appeared.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.