The Teaninich distillery was built in 1817 in the Highlands of Scotland by Captain Hugh Munroe, who inherited the estate in 1877 upon the death of his father, Royal Navy Captain James Munro, Laird of Teaninich. After passing through the hands of various owners, including the blenders Munro & Cameron in Elgin in 1895, Teaninich was sold to the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1933. In the 1960s and 1970s, in a rapidly developing industry, it underwent various periods of expansion, with the replacement and then addition of new stills with a higher capacity, and the construction of a new distillery. The old distillery closed in 1984 in the midst of the Whisky Loch crisis. Teaninich primarily produced whisky for blends and only a handful of single malt bottlings can be found, either in the Rare Malts or Flora and Fauna range, or from independent bottlers.

A Teaninich 23 year old distilled in 1973 and bottled at cask strength in 1997 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.