Strathclyde
A Rare Grain
The Strathclyde distillery sits unobtrusively on the south side of the Clyde river in the Gorbals district of Glasgow. It was built in 1927 as a grain distillery and for a long time produced only neutral spirit for use in the gins of then-owners Seager Evans.
Eventually the distillery was acquired by US company Schenley Industries, which in 1956 installed a pair of stills for the production of a single malt whisky named Kinclaith. This single malt was only produced on the site until 1975, when Whitbread acquired the site and reverted to 100% grain whisky production. Having been produced over such a short time, Kinclaith single malt is naturally very rare and bottlings by independents, such as Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory, are sought-after by collectors of Scotch whisky esoterica.
No official bottlings of Strathclyde single grain whisky were ever released; however independent bottlings, particularly those which have spent longer in cask, are of a very high quality and on many an enthusiast’s wish list.
