Established in 1821 the distillery near Elgin produces today about 3.600.000 litres of spirit which contributes to blends like White Horse, Bells or Dimple. Single malt bottlings are rare. Recently special Classic Friends‘ bottlings came on the market. It is a top class whisky with floral, grassy and nutty notes, with a very delicate sweetness, reminding of marzipan.

The whisky traveller Afred Barnard reported: „The Mash House is a well-lighted stone building with paved floor. It is 48 feet long and 24 feet broad, and contains a Mash Tun, 12 feet in diameter, and 3t feet deep. The Heating Copper, holding 1,000 gallons, which supplies the Tun with hot water, as well as the Underback, are also in this house. The latter is a timber vessel, holding 600 gallons, and is sunk in the floor below. The worts are pumped from the Underback to the Coolers, which cover the roofs of the Tun Room, Spirit Store, and Coal Shed.

We then passed into the Tun Room, which is the same height and dimensions as the Mash House, and contains five Washbacks, each holding 3,200 gallons and at the end a Yeast Store. Continuing our progress we came to the Still House, which is in the centre of the block, and is a lofty and light apartment. Here on a gallery is the Wash Charger, Low-wines and Feints Charger, and Receiver, and on the ground-level two Pot Stills; the Wash Still holding 2,000 gallons, and the Spirit Still 1,850 gallons, heated by open furnaces, and the Safe and Spirit Receiver.

We next bent our steps to the central court, where is placed the Spirit Store, containing a Vat with a capacity of 1,850 gallons; and three large Bonded Warehouses, holding together 2,000 casks; also a Racking Store, Manager's and Public Offices, and the Excise Offices.“

(Alfred Barnard. The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. London, 1887.)

In 2011 the distillery was again refurbished. In 1962 a new stillhouse was built in 1971 and replaced the old one, two more stills were added, there are now four stills. The old still house is not in use any longer. The old cast iron mash tun was replaced by a new stainless steel full lauter mash tun in 2011. Parts of the wash stills were replaced and a new intermediate spirit receiver was set in, the tun room was also renovatated, the washbacks were rehooped and the control system was computerized. This resulted in an annual production capacity of 5.6 million litres of spirit.

In November 2013 Diageo completed an almost £5 million capacity upgrade of Linkwood distillery: a new building to house six new washbacks, two new pot stills were installed to increase the annual output by 50%. Linkwood is part of a broader investment programme by Diageo in 2013-14.  The distillery Linkwood is important for Diageo, producing high quality single malt whisky for their blended Scotch whisky portfolio like Johnnie Walker, J&B and others.

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