Glenturret's Decision to Halt its Peated Whisky Production Ends a Centuries-Old Tradition

Tucked away in a secluded glen on the banks of the Turret River in Scotland’s southern Highlands lies Glenturret Distillery. Like many scotch whisky makers, it’s a place with a rich but troubled history. It’s often touted as the oldest working distillery in Scotland, first established in 1763—and for nearly 50 years prior to that, the site had been used as a haven for bootleggers and smugglers, with the surrounding hills as lookout points. Over the next century and a half, the distillery, formally named Glenturret in 1875, would be sold several times before closing down twice by the 1920s. It eventually reopened in 1959, but then underwent another series of sales—passing through the hands of Rémy Cointreau, Highland Distillers, William Grant & Sons, and finally Edrington over the ensuing 40 years.

In 2018, Edrington put Glenturret up for sale, seeking to offload this relatively small distillery in order to focus on more important brands Macallan, Highland Park, and Glenrothes. The following year Glenturret was acquired by French luxury brand Lalique—renowned for its breathtaking crystals, high-end perfumes, and ultra-luxe collaborations with Macallan—in partnership with Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. This was Lalique’s first real move into the wine and spirits arena—preceding the launch of Aberturret gin and its acquisition of the Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey wine estate in Bordeaux—and Lalique quickly went to work whipping Glenturret into a luxury brand, in line with its other products. Since then the distillery has become something of a ritzy destination for visitors in Scotland, including an extensive tour program and a new luxurious hotel called the Aberturret Estate House which boasts a two Michelin Star dining experience helmed by executive chef Mark Donald. It reworked the whisky range to offer five core expressions—the flagship Triple Wood, 7 year old Peat Smoked, 10 year old Peat Smoked, 12 year old, and 15 year old.

For a Highlands whisky maker, Glenturret’s past is curiously drenched in peat smoke. Though it’s far less smoky than what you’d find on Islay, Glenturret has always used peat as part of its production process, with most of that history taking place prior to the distillery shutting down in the ’20s. But peat also played a key role in Glenturret’s modern history—when the focus was on making components that served as a cornerstone of Famous Grouse’s blends. (For many years, Glenturret even had a large copper grouse statue in its parking lot and offered guests a visitor program called “The Famous Grouse Experience”.) During those years, Glenturret distilled smoky whisky from lightly peated malts that were sourced from outside malting houses. It eventually started producing its own heavily peated malt on-site in 2008, and the resulting whiskies became the key components of Famous Grouse’s popular Smoky Black. In 2009, Glenturret started bottling that smokier single malt on its own as Ruadh Maor, which later became an annual release.

But in more recent times Glenturret has stopped producing blend components in favor of releasing its own single malt, and peat has consequently taken a backseat. Over the years, the distillery has been gradually using less peat—which has represented about 10% of its overall production since 2019. Now Glenturret is planning to slam its foot on the brakes—announcing that it will stop using peated malt this year, and will retire its peated 7 year old and 10 year old from the core range by 2026. Details are still scarce at this point on precisely what the peatless 2026 Glenturret core range lineup will look like. The distillery hasn’t disclosed whether the range will shrink down from five bottlings to three, or if the peated expressions will be replaced with something new.

Lost in Translation

Why make the move to ditch peat altogether? Glenturret managing director Jennie Baernreuther says the decision was largely influenced by marketing challenges abroad. She notes that some drinkers in markets outside of Europe and the U.S. were confused by the distillery’s peated expressions, and that Glenturret wasn’t fully able to communicate the style to them. “When they like peat, they tend to go straight to Islay and they don’t really know about Highland peat,” she explains. “It’s very difficult for people to understand what it is, let alone be likely to choose Glenturret’s peated [whiskies].”

The team briefly kicked around the idea of keeping the peated expressions, albeit in a separate range—similar to what Bruichladdich has with Port Charlotte, or other unpeated/peated sister-brand arrangements like Glenallachie/Meikle Toir and Springbank/Longrow. But they eventually scrapped that idea, figuring that it would further complicate things. Instead, the plan is to reorient the distillery’s house style in a way that focuses entirely on sherry cask maturation.

Baernreuther also notes that the decision to stop using peat dovetails with Glenturret’s ongoing sustainability efforts. Since taking the reins in 2019, co-owner Hansjörg Wyss, who has a long history of funding conservation causes, directed the distillery to start exploring more sustainable ways to make whisky. The distillery had to make a number of changes—including replacing its hand-mashed open-top mash tuns with more modern ones—which have saved around 1 million liters of water a year while slashing energy consumption by 27% annually. The distillery looked at methods for reducing its peat-related carbon emissions, but figured that, considering the marketing problem, simply abandoning peat would essentially kill two birds with one stone. Glenturret recently won this year’s Walpole Sustainable Luxury Brand of the Year award, and aims to have zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The core peated expressions are set for retirement next year, but Baernreuther says that fans might still be able to get their hands on smoky Glenturret sometime after that. She notes that roughly 20% of Glenturret’s current inventory is peated, and the plan is to bottle those whiskies as market exclusives for connoisseurs in certain locales. The exact details are currently undisclosed, but they’re expected to be stylistically similar to Glenturret’s peated 10 year old.

The Path Forward

The decision to ditch peat is just the latest change at Glenturret since its 2019 acquisition. The brand underwent an official relaunch the following year; the most obvious difference was a sleek new bottle design, but the distillery made a few other changes behind the scenes. Now Glenturret will make sherry cask maturation the defining characteristic of its house style. That process has involved re-racking older stocks, which were matured in relatively tired and inert casks laid down prior to the acquisition. But Glenturret has also put a premium on working with quality casks for the whiskies distilled during the Lalique era. Those efforts have been shepherded by Stuart MacPherson, former master of wood for Macallan, who is helping Glenturret source its casks directly from sherry bodegas. The distillery is primarily using a mix of American and European oak hogsheads, which are seasoned with different sherry types like oloroso or PX. Baernreuther mentions that the oloroso-seasoned American oak casks are a heavy lifter in the recipe, contributing sweetness, dried fruits, and nuttiness.

In terms of other interesting barrel projects, Glenturret is currently developing sauternes cask-finished expressions using barrels from two vineyards in the region. The distillery is also working on a Rob Roy cocktail project with a client, which uses whisky aged in virgin oak. Baernreuther says that, after spending 3 years in those new barrels, the scotch came out tasting like a bourbon.

Elsewhere, Glenturret has also been hard at work expanding its production capacity and availability. When it initially relaunched its core range, the release accounted for approximately 46,000 bottles that were available only in a few markets. Now, Glenturret has a presence in 22 markets around the world. Last year’s core lineup is more than three times larger than the original, with around 150,000 bottles. This year’s batch is expected to be even bigger, leaping to 180,000 bottles.