The Coleburn distillery was founded in Longmorn by John Robertson & Son in 1897, in the final years of the whisky boom. It was sold in 1915 to the Clynelish Distillery Company, owned by John Risk, John Walker & Sons and Distillers Company Limited (DCL). DCL bought Risk’‘s shares and made Colebrn part of its Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) subsidiary, giving the license to J&G Stewart. Its whisky was then used for the blends Usher’‘s and Johnnie Walker Red Label. The distillery closed in 1985 in the midst of the Whisky Loch crisis, a victim of its archaic equipment. The site was bought by Aceo, who use the warehouses for its independent bottler Murray McDavid. Coleburn bottlings are found in the Rare Malts range and from independent bottlers.

A Coleburn 21 year old distilled in 1979 and bottled at cask strength in 2000 for the Rare Malts series. Created in the mid-1990s by United Distillers (Diageo), the Rare Malts series features bottlings from many of the group’’s distilleries, including some of the lesser known whose production was generally used for blends, as well as closed distilleries such as Port Ellen and Brora. Bottled at cask strength, the whiskies in the range are also known for their sometimes astounding alcohol content, often exceeding 60% ABV. The Rare Malts range was discontinued in 2005.