Macduff malt whisky distillery in Speyside was built with blending in mind and that mindset has never changed. It is a distillery whose single malt whisky seems to fly under the radar of most whisky lovers, arousing neither passion nor hatred. 

The reason for this is that Macduff's whisky is essentially flawless, classically Speyside in style: sweet, malty, floral, slightly spicy whisky with a little smoke. This consistently good standard means that there have been practically no bad Macduff whiskies bottled, but on the other hand neither have there been any truly spectacular ones. Combined with the distillery's obscurity, this has meant that historically Macduff has attracted very few true devotees and seems destined to remain in the shadows.

Macduff was long considered one of the definitive Speyside workhorse distilleries, but in 2009 the Scotch Whisky Act defined the Speyside region using political boroughs, and Macduff - being on the eastern edge of what most whisky fans thought of as Speyside - was suddenly redefined as a Highland single malt.