Glenkinchie
The Rate brothers built the Glenkinchie distillery on its current site in 1837 (the name Kinchie, it is believed, comes from de Quincey, the family
which originally owned the estate, an ancestor of whom, Thomas de Quincey, wrote Confessions of an English Opium Eater). Bankruptcy soon followed and the distillery was converted into a sawmill for a period of time. The distillery was re-commissioned in 1881 and, in 1914, it joined forces with other distilleries to form United Distillers Limited - the precursor to Diageo. Currently Glenkinchie possesses the largest wash still in Scotland and is one of the few distilleries to continue using worm tubs for cooling the new make spirit.
