Royal Lochnagar

Royal Lochnagar stands in the Highlands of Aberdeenshire, below the mountain of Lochnagar and close to Balmoral Castle. John Begg founded it in 1845. Soon afterwards a visit from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert earned it a royal warrant, which is how 'Royal' came into the name. Today it belongs to Diageo.

It is one of the smallest distilleries in the Diageo group and works with just one pair of small copper pot stills. The spirit is condensed in traditional worm tubs, which helps give it a fuller, slightly heavier character. Water comes from springs in the Lochnagar foothills. Much of the output goes into blends.

The official range is short. The 12 Year Old is the core bottling and Selected Reserve is the richer, sherry-led bottling without an age statement. Over the years there have also been Distillers Edition releases, special releases such as the 16 year old from 2021, distillery exclusive batches, and older bottlings such as the 1972 vintage in Diageo's Rare Malts series.

Independent bottlings appear now and then. Douglas Laing has bottled it in Old Malt Cask and Provenance, Hunter Laing in The First Editions, and Signatory Vintage and WM Cadenhead have released single casks as well.