Paladin's Signature Release

Paladin’s Ghost Trilogy from Dumbarton

Three casks of Lowland Dumbarton distillery were acquired by Paladin pre-COVID pandemic. These casks were originally laid down on 20th November 2000. Fast forward to November 2021, they all turned 21 years old so we bottled them! It was the first distillery to introduce American-style stainless steel columns, rather than copper stills, a radical and ahead of its time move at the installation. Dumbarton’s whisky was mostly reserved for the Ballantine’s blend and was never bottled as a single grain. The distillery shuttered in 2002 so this is literally one of the last batches of this exquisite Scotch left on the planet.

Paladin’s “Dram Team”  envisioned  that the soft palate of lowland regions could be further enhanced by a dessert wine cask sweetness. So, all three casks were uniquely finished!

History of a Ghost Distillery – Dumbarton

The distillery was built on the site of McMillan Shipyard on Castle Street, in Dumbarton Scotland. At some point in its development, it was one of the largest distilleries in Scotland-period (some would argue the whole of Europe).

What was rather unorthodox was the distillery is known to have used a rather unorthodox security system, “The Scotch Watch”, to protect its premises. It was initiated in 1959 by Tom Scott and commanded by a gander called “Mr Ballantine”. Originally, it consisted of just five Chinese white geese plus a gander. By 2001, however, the flock had grown to about 100 birds.

In 1988, Allied Brewers acquired Hiram Walkers. From which Allied Distillers was created shortly afterwards. In 2001, Dumbarton had an annual production of 25 million gallons of whisky being the major contributor for Ballantine’s blends. At the time, roughly 2000 people worked on the site of Dumbarton. The distillery used maize exclusively, which was imported from Canada and America due to its overseas ownership and also contributed to blends of Canadian Club Whisk(e)y.

Unfortunately, by 2002, Dumbarton had become a very “old-fashioned” distillery with no major renovations made to the site since it was built in the 1930s. The distillery was very difficult to upgrade because the tall column stills went up through the concrete floors, thus making the structure of the building very difficult to alter. So Allied Distillers moved its production to the Strathclyde Distillery. The security guards (geese) stayed behind when Dumbarton closed in 2002 and after 10 years, the remaining seven birds were at last retired and sent to live with an existing flock at Glasgow Green. The buildings have now been demolished to make way for a new housing development,  including the site’s iconic red tower.