Dunphail Distillery — Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Dunphail Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery located near Forres, in the Speyside region of Scotland. It was founded in 2023 and is currently owned by Dunphail Distillery Ltd. It is one of the very few Scottish distilleries to floor-malt 100% of its own barley on site, using a working malthouse built to a design not seen in Speyside since 1898.

History

Dunphail Distillery was built inside a set of converted former farm buildings at Wester Greens, near the hamlet of Dunphail south of Forres in Moray, retaining much of the original stonework. It was founded by the Polish-born husband-and-wife team Dariusz Plazewski and Ewelina Chruszczyk, who had previously established the London craft distillery Bimber in 2015. Planning permission to convert the old livestock steading into a distillery, maltings and warehouse complex was granted in 2021, and production began on 6 October 2023. The site includes a purpose-built malthouse with a working kiln and pagoda roof where barley is floor-malted and hand-turned twice daily, making Dunphail one of only a handful of Scottish distilleries — alongside Springbank — to floor-malt the entirety of its own barley. In February 2024, co-founder Dariusz Plazewski stepped back from his role at Dunphail and sister distillery Bimber following his arrest, and day-to-day leadership passed to co-founder Ewelina Chruszczyk. The distillery has continued production since, running at roughly half of its rated annual capacity as it builds up cask stock, with its first single malt releases anticipated from 2026 as the earliest spirit reaches maturity.

Quick Facts

• Region: Speyside
• Founded: 2023
• Owner: Dunphail Distillery Ltd
• Status: Active
• Stills: Three direct-fired copper pot stills (two wash, one spirit), each 2,250 litres

Core Range

Dunphail is a young distillery still building up its maturing stock, so it does not yet have an established core range of aged single malt; its first single malt bottlings are expected from 2026 onward as the earliest casks reach maturity. In the meantime, the distillery sells new-make spirit and offers cask purchase and hand-fill experiences, where visitors can bottle whisky straight from the cask at the on-site visitor centre. Both peated and unpeated spirit are produced, matured across refill hogsheads, sherry casks and port casks, giving an early indication of the range of styles the eventual core range is expected to cover.