Wemyss Malts was founded in 2005 when owner William Wemyss decided to enter the whisky market after a period in the wine trade.  The Wemyss are an aristocratic family, residing in Wemyss Castle in Fife, and have a long-standing historical connection with whisky-making. John Haig built his first distillery on Wemyss land in 1840 and the estate’s barley is still used for whisky-making today.

Wemyss Malts most prominent range is the blended malts The Hive, Spice King and Peat Chimney, which are usually bottled without age statements but have existed in various guises and ages including 8-year-old and 12-year-old versions. High strength batches of these blended malts first appeared in 2016, bottled at 57%.

All of Wemyss Malts bottlings have names evoking the flavours of the whisky. In recent times, the core blended malts have been expanded by a new range called Family Collection, comprising Flaming Feast, Blooming Gorse and Nectar Grove. These are augmented by occasional limited edition luxury blended malts such as Velvet Fig.

Wemyss bottle the deluxe blended whisky Lord Elcho and a large range of single casks that also use taste descriptors alongside the distillery names. The majority of these bottlings are well-aged, often over 20 years old, and are bottled at 46% or at cask strength. Wemyss have a well-deserved reputation for high quality single casks, with acclaim for many of their Islay offerings including outstanding runs from both Bowmore and Bunnahabhain.

In 2013, the Wemyss family took over the Kingsbarns distillery project, with the distillery opening in 2014 and the first general release single malt released in 2019. You can read more about Wemyss’ distillery on our Kingsbarns distillery page.  The site is also home to the family’s Darnley’s Gin distillery.