Did you know?
Here are some facts and stories about Glenfiddich that you might or not know.....
History
Glenfiddich founder William Grant was born in 1839 in Dufftown, up in the Scottish Highlands. At the age of seven, he already worked tending cattle and in his late 20’s he took a position as a book keeper at the local Mortlach distillery, where he quickly became distillery manager. In 1886, 20 years after he started at Mortlach, he started to realise his dream by building his own distillery. On Christmas day 1887 he realised his dream by fulfilling his lifelong ambition to create ‘the bast dram of the valley’ when the first drops of spirit flow from the copper stills. The distillery was called Glenfiddich, Gaelic for The Valley of the Deer.
William built the distillery in a single year, with the help of his wife and their nine childeren. He saved throughout his entire career for his lifelong dream. It cost them around 800 pounds to create the distillery.
The first drops on Christmas day 1887 meant the very first production, with a steep of barley, took place on the 15th of November 1887. The first cask of Glenfiddich was laid down in January 1888.
William became blind in 1905 but continued to run his business with the help of his daughter Meta.
The Glenfiddich maltings closed in 1961/1962. And converted into a Bonded Warehouse when they stopped using it. In 1969, half of the warehouse was converted in to a Visitor Centre which opened July 5th 1969 and then later on, the other half was added to enlarge the visitor centre and is still used as such today. Glenfiddich was the first distillery to open its doors to visitors.
This poster from 1962 was used to promote Glenfiddich Straight Malt in America - evidence of the first single malt whisky to be marketed outside of the United Kingdom.
Aparently, at this time, a bottle of 'straight malt' (what we call single malt nowadays) was cheaper to purchase than a blended whisky as it was only viewed as an ingredient to be used to create blended whisky.
The Grant family set about changing that and in doing so, created a category that we all know today.
Since the first drops came from the Glenfiddich stills in 1887, only 6 Malt Masters looked after the nose and taste of Glenfiddich prior to bottling.
1. William Grant, the founder was the very first to look after the spirit
2. John Grant, William's first born son
3. Gordon Ross
4. Hamish Robertson
5. David Stewart; who started working for the company September 3rd 1962 as an apprentice blender, became master blender 7 years later. This made him the longest serving Master Blender/Malt Master in the industry.
6. Brian Kinsman; became the sixth Malt Master in the companies history on September 1st, 2009
Glenfiddich still has its own bottling hall on the distillery premises. Although it is not used to bottle the bulk, older aged variants, limited editions and small sized bottles are still being bottled at this location today.
Branding
The triangular bottle was launched April 3rd 1961 and developed by Hans Schleger. It is said the triangular design symbolises the trinity of Scottish water, air and barley. The essential ingredients of any malt whisky. However, the most famous story heard in the pub is that it’s shaped that way so you could hide the bottle under your bed and it wont roll out underneath.
Hans Schleger also designed the logo for the London Underground.
The Glenfiddich icnonic stag head, designed by Charles Gordon, first appeared on the Glenfiddich bottle in 1968 in the US. The stag proved so popular, a version for the UK was created. This stag was based on the “Monarch of the Glen”, a Victorian oil painting by Sir Edwin Landseer, who also designed the Lions of Trafalgar Square.
Interestingly, in the 1970s and 1980s, Glenfiddich marketed different age statements in different markets. The US were sold a 10 year old, Japan got a 12 year old and an 8 year old was predominantly sold in Italy. They were all replaced by a non-age statement expression in the 1990s.
Crafting the whisky
Glenfiddich is one of few whiskies still to use oak marrying tuns to marry their whisky prior to bottling. Marrying takes place in 2000 liter Portuguese oak tuns at Glenfiddich. This is rather unusual as other companies use stainless steel vessels sometimes up to 50-60.000 liters to marry their whisky.
After reading the above, do you now think Glenfiddich is a blended whisky? Well, a lot of people do. Technically, if you mix something, the correct English translation would be to blend it. However, there are some important ithings to address here.
Glenfiddich is a Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Meaning it comes from one single distillery, is made from malted barley, made and matured in Scotland in oak casks for a minimum of 3 years. Only then, you are allowed to call it Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
A Blended Scotch Whisky is a blend from different distilleries created using malt whiskies as well as up to 90% grain whiskies. Not going in to too much detail here, but the grain component is cheaper to produce.
Therefore, marrying casks (combining them), from the same distillery is still called a Single Malt.
American oak (Quercus alba) often held bourbon / American whisky . The wood from American oak barrels gives the maturing malt whisky soft vanilla flavours and a hint of spice. Barrels impart flavour much quicker as these are amongst the smallest type of casks used. They hold around 180 litres and are made of 27-34 staves of 90cm (35 inch)
European oak (Quercus robur) often held sherry before. This gives the maturing whisky deeper, richer fruit flavours over the years. The sherry butt is the largest of casks used. It holds 500 litres and is made 0f 36-40 staves of 130cm (51 inches). These bigger casks mature the whisky slower than smaller cask (eg. Bourbon barrels)
Glenfiddich uses a single source of water throughout the entire whisky-making process. Water for all stages of the process comes from the Robbie Dhu spring.
This water source is so important for Glenfiddich, when a few years after opening Glenfiddich, a competitor wanted to buy the land next to Glenfiddich, William Grant decided to buy it, to protect his water source. On this land, he build The Balvenie Distillery in 1892. Although, at that time it was called Glen Gordon, after William Grant's business partner.
Since 1957, Glenfiddich has had just three expert coppersmiths. The first was Willie McLachlan, a master craftsman. His apprentice was Dennis McBain, who worked at Glenfiddich well over 50 years, before retiring in 2009, but is still found on the distillery often. Ian Lewis is currently tending the copper stills.
The importance of wood is never underestimated in the whisky making process. That is why coopers have worked onsite at the Glenfiddich distillery since the early 20th century. In 1958, William Grant descendant Gordon Grant build the cooperage as we know today. A cooper apprentice for approximately five years and repair or reconstruct around 25 casks every day.
Before coopering, Spanish oak is usually air-dried for 18 months whereas American oak is usually kiln dried for 28 days.
Glenfiddichs' parentcompany invented 'teaspooning' in the 1980's. Teaspooning is a way to protect a brand from independent bottlers in releasing casks brought to open market under the brand name as a single malt.
Therefore, it's pretty hard to find an independent bottling of Glenfiddich. Teaspooned Glenfiddich is a cask of Glenfiddich single malt, where a teaspoon of another malt whisky, often from sistercompany The Balvenie is added. This means the cask no longer holds single malt whisky, but now is a blended malt, called Wardhead.
Glenfiddich parent company William Grant also brings out blended malts on their own. A familiar one is Monkey Shoulder, which was known as a blended malt from Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and Kininvie, but also Glen Deer, which is Glenfiddich and The Balvenie.
Sustainability
The Glenfiddich fleet of trucks completely runs on green biogas, made from the residues of their own whisky making process. It starts with draff, a sugar-rich residue of water-soaked barley, left over from the mashing process. They mix in another whisky waste by-product called ‘pot ale’, a coppery liquid akin to beer that is left over after the distillation process. This liquid waste is then fed to an anaerobic digester, wherein bacteria contained in the apparatus break down the whisky-making product waste and residue into biogas.
During the distillation process, a waste residue made of water and very small quantities of copper from the stills is produced. This copper has to be stripped out before the water can be returned to the river Spey. But instead of making a huge chemical filtration system, a natural reed bed solution was designed and installed. Wetlands that are planted with specially selected native plants and trees that absorb the copper.
