A FINE DROP OF
Glenfiddich
One of the main reasons for their
success is arguably their world famous
triangular bottle. It’s also used for their
‘Grant’s’ blend and was first introduced
in 1957 to distinguish the
Well, they had to - for a long time
Glenfiddich was the logical next step
for people ‘upgrading’ from blends,
but these days there’s some serious
competition in malts.
brand from other whiskies on the
shelves of liquorists. Well, you can’t
argue with results. That being said,
when I tried my first Glenfiddich in
the 1980’s it thought it was a good
whisky - but that was because I was
used to drinking affordable blends like
Teacher’s.
Glenfiddich was founded in 1886-1887
by the company / family that still owns
it; William Grant & Sons.
It took a Lagavulin for me to go mad
about malt whisky in the early 1990’s.
In those days Glenfiddich was still
marketed as a ‘pure malt’ and they
paled in comparison...
Fortunately, the ‘90’s seem to have
been a particularly difficult decade for
Glenfiddich. Bottlings from the 1960’s
and 1970’s that I’ve tried were much
better than the generic stuff they
bottled in the 1990’s. During the early
noughties of the 21st century they’ve
released more batches and bottlings
that have convinced me that they have
found the way up again.
When they first started production at
Glenfiddich they didn’t use purpose
built material; the old stills from
Cardow distillery - nowadays known
as Cardhu - were considered good
enough at the time. At the time of
the big whisky ‘boom’ of the late 19ty
century they operated as Glenfiddich
Distillery Co.
In 1963 Glenfiddich released their
single malt as an official bottling for
the first time (and probably the first
distillery to actually do so). This turned
out to be a massive succes; in 1964
they sold around 4,000 cases but just
a decade later (1974) the sales had
already grown to some 120,000 cases.
Glenfiddich managed to build their
malt whisky into a real brand’ - and
they were the first to do so. Their
pioneering work created ‘single malts’.
By 1980 Glenfiddich had a grand total
of 29 stills which didn’t operate in
‘pairs’ like at many other distilleries. At
the time Glenfiddich ran 11 wash stills
and 18 spirit stills, both gas and coal
fired. If my data is correct Glenfiddich
has reduced the number of stills
significantly since then. In 2000 they
ran five wash stills & eight spirit stills.
These 8 spirit stills are unusually
small compared to other Scotch
whisky distilleries. The world famous
Glenfiddich distillery isn’t just the
birthplace of the best known ‘brand’ of
single malt whisky.
With a production capacity of more
than 10,000,000 litres of alcohol
per year ‘Fiddich is ‘the giant ‘ of the
industry. William Grant also owns the
Balvenie and Kininvie distilleries, as
well as the recently opened Ailsa Bay.
The distillery is located in the bustling
town of Dufftown in the heart of
Banffshire. Other distilleries in the
immediate area are its sister distilleries
Balvenie and Kininvie, as well as
Convalmore, Dufftown, Glendullan,
Mortlach and Pittyvaich. Wow, the
town runs on whisky!