Aberfeldy Distillery, founded by the John Dewar & Sons, Ltd., was built on the south shore of the river Tay in 1896, just beyond the city boundaries of Aberfeldy and opened in 1898.

However, with demand for barley rising in World War I for use as a basic foodstuff, the distillery closed from 1917 to 1919.  The Second World War also caused barley supplies to be cut, and the distillery was again forced to shut down for some of this period.  Supply to final markets was kept up by reducing the period whisky was laid up from 7 years to 3.

 

In 1972, the distillery was enlarged, and the present stills were replaced by four new steam heated stills.  In 1999, an Aberfeldy 12 Year Old Single Malt brand was introduced. In 2000, the Earl of Elgin opened "Dewar's World of Whisky" at the Aberfeldy Distillery: this is a centre for marketing the products and educating the public about the process of distillation and history of the Dewar's brand.  Aberfeldy is the largest malt whisky component of Dewar's Blended Whisky.