Auchroisk Distillery was built and founded in order to increase malt production to go into the increasingly popular J&B blended whisky, which had found a strong following in the US selling over three million cases in the early 1970s. The location was chosen due to the discovery of Dorries Well, which has particularly soft water due to the granite bedrock and sandstone which it passes through.
Today, the distillery is a part of the Diageo portfolio and mostly produces whisky for its blended Scotches. It has a large capacity of nearly 6 million litres per annum, and adds a nutty, malty character to the blends.
Auchroisk did a very small first single malt release in 1978, but is better known for its 1986 release under The Singleton name, chosen by the owners due to the challenge it felt consumers faced with pronouncing the distillery’s name correctly. It reverted to the name Auchroisk in 2001 and is now bottled from time to time as part of Diageo’s annual Special Releases, but is not commercially available on a regular basis as a single malt for consumers