Much of Cambus’s significance came behind the scenes. It played a notable part in the early debate over whether grain spirit could legally be called whisky, with DCL using Cambus in its public campaign during the “What is Whisky?” trials of the early 20th century. A major fire in 1914 forced a long closure, the distillery reopened in 1937, closed again during the Second World War, and returned in 1944 before later becoming the first distillery to install an on-site by-products plant in 1964. Production finally ended in 1993, and the site now serves as Diageo’s cooperage hub, which has helped give surviving independent bottlings of Cambus extra appeal as examples of a closed distillery that spent most of its life supplying blends rather than building a large official range of its own.
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