Tambovie Distillery — Lowland Single Malt Whisky

Tambowie Distillery (also recorded historically as "Tambovie") was a Scotch whisky distillery located near Milngavie, on the northern outskirts of Glasgow, in the Lowland region of Scotland. It was founded around 1825 by the farmer and distiller Alexander Graham and closed in the early twentieth century after a series of fires. Tambowie is remembered today as one of the many small Lowland farm distilleries that disappeared before living memory, kept alive commercially only by a modern blended malt that borrows its name.

History

Tambowie was established around 1825 by Alexander Graham, who ran it as a working farm distillery on the Tambowie estate near Milngavie, then part of Stirlingshire (now East Dunbartonshire), roughly seven miles north of Glasgow. Graham was recorded as the distillery's farmer-distiller into the 1860s. Later proprietors included Alexander Buchanan, who was running the business by 1878 but was sequestrated (declared bankrupt) in 1884, and David Chrystal, who was in charge when the whisky historian Alfred Barnard visited during his tour of the United Kingdom's distilleries; Barnard's 1887 book "The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom" recorded Tambowie's annual output at around 48,000 gallons in 1885. By 1903 the distillery had passed to McNab & Co. A serious fire in 1905 destroyed the bonded warehouse, causing an estimated £15,000 of damage, and the distillery did not recover; production ceased and the site was further destroyed by fire, commonly dated to 1914.

Quick Facts

• Region: Lowland
• Founded: c. 1825
• Owner: Closed; historic owners included Alexander Graham, Alexander Buchanan, David Chrystal and McNab & Co.
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

Tambowie's buildings were badly damaged by fire in 1905 and again around 1914, and the remaining structures were demolished by the 1920s; a bed and breakfast near Milngavie now occupies the site and still carries the Tambowie name. Because the distillery closed long before whisky was routinely bottled and labelled by distillery of origin, no original Tambowie single malt is known to survive on the collectors' market. The name was revived in 1992 by the Vintage Malt Whisky Co. Ltd, founded by former Morrison Bowmore Distillers director Brian Crook, which released a blended malt Scotch whisky under the Tambowie name (including a 12 Year Old expression) as a tribute to the lost distillery. This modern Tambowie whisky is a blend of malts sourced from other distilleries rather than genuine spirit from the original site, since Tambowie itself never resumed production.