Benriach Distillery was set up at a bad time for founder Duff – only a year after opening, the famous Pattison Crash forced it and many other Scottish distilleries to close when it was discovered that the Pattison brothers had been running one of their early Ponzi schemes, over-exaggerating their production capacity and leaving huge irreparable holes in their books that the company couldn’t fix. The Pattison brothers had been running an early Ponzi scheme, overstating their production capacity and leaving huge holes in their books that the company couldn’t fix. Eventually, more companies closed, and it wasn’t until 2004, when Billy Walker, a former director of Burn Stewart, bought it along with Investor Money, that BenRiach really got the chance it deserved. Over the next few decades, significant investment drove it to become well known and loved amongst whisky lovers.
It is now owned by Brown Forman, who saw its huge potential and acquired it from Walker and Co in 2016 – along with Glenglassaugh and Glendronach – for nearly £300 million. Current production of 2.8 million liters a year supports the company’s launch of many of its own single malts.