Deviant Desires

John Dewar was born in poverty in 1805 near the Highland village of Aberfeldy. He went on to become a successful businessman with a thriving whisky blending business, John Dewar & Sons. Those sons took over the business, and in the 1890s, decided to build a distillery to provide fillings for their house blends. Perhaps to honor their father, they chose to build a few miles from his birthplace; thus was Aberfeldy born. The distillery became part of the huge DCL portfolio in the first quarter of the 20th century; a 12 year old bottling of Aberfeldy was issued in the flora and fauna range, but it is now rare and highly sought, fetching sizable sums at auction. When DCL formed Diageo, it was forced to divest of Aberfeldy and several other malt distillers, so those facilities were sold to Bacardi, along with the Dewar’s blend. Bacardi has marketed limited quantities of Aberfeldy as a single malt (in 12 and 21 year old iterations) for many years; in recent years, the single malt range has been revamped and expanded as part of Bacardi’s “Last Great Malts of Scotland” range alongside stablemates Aultmore, Macduff (Deveron), Royal Brackla, and Craigellachie. 

Aberfeldy 12 Y.O. (older bottling) 40% abv