Glen Grant Scotch Whisky Distillery

Glen Grant is one of the biggest selling malts in the worldwide market and was acquired by Campari in 2006 as a consequence of the purchase of its former owners - Allied Domecq – by Pernod Ricard.

Glen Grant is a whisky which is very light in colour with a crisp, fresh taste. The company describes it as a “pale whisky with a colourful history.”

It is interesting to note that Glen Grant is the only single malt scotch whisky which bears the name of its founders.

It was founded in 1823 by two former illegal distillers and smugglers at a time when illicit whisky distilling was rife throughout Scotland. Around half of the whisky sold at that time came from unlicensed distilleries.

In 1840, brothers John and James Grant decided to take out a licence and make the distillery legal! With the sea and port of Garmouth nearby, the River Spey at its feet and barley-growing plains nearby, all the basic ingredients of malt whisky were close at hand.

By 1872, the founders of Glen Grant Distillery had passed away. Young James ‘The Major’ Grant, born in 1847, had always taken a keen interest in the distillery and having inherited the business and the title ‘Glen Grant’ from his uncle John Grant, he was to prove himself a worthy successor.

There are many stories regarding “The Major.” A legendary innovator, socialiser and traveller, he lived by his own rules and set his own standards. New ideas fascinated him and he wasn’t afraid to explore them. He is said to be the first man in the Highlands to own a car. Glen Grant was the first distillery to have electric light. And he introduced the tall slender stills and purifiers which created the fresh malty flavour and clear colour that defines Glen Grant whisky to this day.

The distillery prides itself in the fact that it has had only nine distillery managers in its entire history and even less master blenders – four, excluding the founding brothers.