{"id":668098,"date":"2026-01-02T02:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668098\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:53:14","slug":"scotlands-highest-distillery-proud-of-unbroken-record-of-operating-in-snowfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668098\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s highest distillery proud of unbroken record of operating in snowfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

The manager of Scotland\u2019s highest distillery has expressed pride at his team\u2019s unbroken record of keeping operations running amid the heaviest winter snowfalls.<\/p>\n

Dalwhinnie Distillery sits at around 1,300ft above sea level in the Cairngorms National Park in the heart of the Highlands.<\/p>\n

Manager John Hart, 60, said the six-strong operations team is well prepared for what the rest of the winter might bring, as he described the annual challenge of keeping whisky production going when the site is blanketed in snow.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously get probably more snowfall than most parts of Scotland in terms of being a village around about 1,300ft up, so it definitely presents operational challenges when we get the snowfall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe site has to run. We have to enable vehicles to get in with deliveries of raw materials and we\u2019ve got collections of output being taken away.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my operators are really trained and skilled at using a snow plough. It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I came here, I worked all my life in big towns and cities and whenever there\u2019s snowfall in a built-up place everything grinds to a halt, and half of the workforce can\u2019t get to work etc, but here I just have this amazing team of operators who, no matter what, they turn up and we get the site fit and safe to allow us to operate normally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be really challenging in the winter months, but I think everybody here just has a mindset that this comes with the territory and we just make sure that we\u2019re as prepared and resilient as we can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here seven years now and, touch wood, I\u2019ve not had to stop a single day of production because of snow or bad weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Mr Hart, who is originally from Kilmarnock, spent most of his working life in West Yorkshire prior taking on the job in the Highlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a real desire to get a different life experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my wife Sally had been coming on holidays to Scotland and when the Dalwhinnie position came up, it just seemed to offer such a different life experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d spent all my life living in towns and cities and that was the big attraction for me. Of course, it was also a bonus that it was the whisky industry and all the emotion that we as Scottish people feel towards our national drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so it was all of those components coming together that made it a real attractive option for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live on the site, so we live through the winter experience as well. It\u2019s not that I travel back to Edinburgh or Glasgow at the weekend and miss out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for us, it\u2019s been an amazing life experience. And, yeah, when that snowfall comes as a resident, then you have to also be prepared, make sure that the fridge is full. And, you know, if you can\u2019t get out for a day or two, then make sure it\u2019s something that you can be relaxed about and not worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think you have to very much come with a mindset that don\u2019t moan about the weather, because that\u2019s the trade-off for all the beauty and everything else that this place offers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The distillery\u2019s water source is located at an even greater height, from a loch sitting at 2,000ft up in the Drumochter Hills that is topped up with snow melt through the winter months.<\/p>\n

The near-freezing temperature of the water used in the distilling process at this time of year is credited with giving Dalwhinnie Winter\u2019s Gold single malt a distinctive taste.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably the key characteristic of the Winter\u2019s Gold because it\u2019s being exposed to the same extreme conditions that we experience through those winter months,\u201d said Mr Hart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The manager of Scotland\u2019s highest distillery has expressed pride at his team\u2019s unbroken record of keeping operations running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,203591,203592,4884,97249,203593,712,16,15,15469,203594],"class_list":{"0":"post-668098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cairngorm-national-park","10":"tag-dalwhinnie-distillery","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-highlands","13":"tag-john-hart","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-whisky","18":"tag-whisky-production"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115823248033449859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}