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supply the grain whisky for their own
blends, especially Standfast. The distillery
is massive, covering 700 acres and
producing 110 million litres of alcohol per
annum. If the photo of the stills resembles
and oil refinery it is not a coincidence as
the process, using the Girvan Process
continuous vacuum still, is not dissimilar.

A small percentage of Girvan has been
released as a single grain and named

Blackbarrel. The name comes from barrels
that have received extra charring. The
whisky may have first appeared in 1995 but
is no longer produced. One strange fact is
that William Grant & Sons spell the name
as one word but independent bottlers spell
it as two words.

The Invergordon Distillery is situated in
North East Scotland and opened in 1961.
After a few changes in ownership it is now
operated by Whyte and Mackay. A 10yr old
single grain was released in 1991 but this is
no longer produced. Some independent
bottlers produce a single grain Invergordon
but the whisky is highly regarded by
blenders so there is not much left for them
to use. This is probably because they use

Coffey stills. This is the original
continuous still and does not use a
vacuum. It is commonly, but not
exclusively, used for distilling Irish
Whiskey, Bourbon and
Armagnac.

Japan has a single
grain whisky, Kirin
Gotemba 15yr old, but
I cannot trace a
miniature of this. If you
have one please send me a photo. This
distillery dates from 1972 and sits in the
shadow of Mount Fuji. It uses both pot
and continuous stills but I don’t know
which has been used for their single
grain whisky.
Frank Wynn

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