Glenfiddich Distillery

Glenfiddich Distillery

Glenfiddich Distillery has a number of claims to fame. Perhaps most importantly, it was Glenfiddich which, in 1963, decided to market a single malt whisky to a world outside Scotland that until then had thought that scotch whisky meant blended whisky. The existence of the wholly new market that has grown so dramatically since owes much to Glenfiddich; and it is fitting that theirs is the biggest selling single malt worldwide.

Distillery Sign Visitor Centre Bonded Warehouse South Side Ditch Glenfiddich's Bottling Line Cleaning the Washbacks Inside the Mashtun

Glenfiddich had its origins in the autumn of 1886, when William Grant purchased land in the valley of the River Fiddich just north of Dufftown. On Christmas Day 1887 the first spirit was produced from the second-hand stills Grant had also purchased to get his distillery up and running.

The name Glenfiddich came from the Gaelic valley of the deer and the first whisky produced was marketed, as it is today, under the brand of a stag's head.

The distillery is unusual in remaining in the hands of the same family throughout its life: it is still owned, together with neighbouring Balvenie Distillery, by the Grant family. The mid 1900s was a time of huge change in the distilling industry, with large number of distilleries coming under the ownership of just a few huge companies who controlled much of the market.

Glenfiddich's ground breaking move into single malt whisky in 1963 owed as much to the need to avoid depending on those same giant companies to buy its product to put in their blends as it did on its farsightedness about the future direction of the market for scotch whisky. Once Glenfiddich had proved there were an ever increasing number of buyers for single malt scotch outside Scotland, other distilleries started to follow their example, and the rest is history.

Two Shapes of Spirit Still

...And Two Large Stillhouses

Two Mashtuns

24 Washbacks

Over the years the success of Glenfiddich has led to the dramatic expansion of the capacity of the distillery. Expansion of an essentially craft process like the production of malt whisky is no easy task if consistency is to be maintained. You can't simply invest in bigger stills when the character of the finished product depends so critically on the stills you started with.

The result at Glenfiddich is two large still houses, full of replicas of those installed in 1887. This is especially noticeable with the spirit stills, which come in pairs with different shaped necks, just like the original mismatched pair purchased (presumably because they were all he could get) second hand by William Grant. The output of each pair of spirit stills is mixed to give the final product.

The stillhouses are served by no fewer that 24 douglas fir washbacks in which the original brew ferments. On the other hand, the two vast mashtuns sharing part of one of the stillhouses show that this part of the process can simply be done in larger containers without changing the end result.

Glenfiddich was not only the first into the single malt market, it was also the first distillery to set up a visitor centre. Today the large scale of the distillery is matched by the large number of visitors flowing through it. Don't let the size of the car park, usually complete with a few coaches, put you off.

You'll find the exceptionally friendly welcome undiminished even at the busiest times, and the many well trained tour guides on hand mean that group size is always reasonable and the distillery never feels unduly crowded.

The layout of the distillery means it is more difficult to see the process in the order in which is happens than is sometimes the case, but the benefits of seeing such a spectacular operation more than make up for this. And while you don't see parts of the process like filling the casks, Glenfiddich's unique on-site bottling line allows an insight into part of the process you'll see nowhere else in Speyside or the Highlands.

Glenfiddich's bottling plant is more significant than it might seem. A key ingredient of malt whisky is the water, which in Glenfiddich's case comes from the nearby Robbie Dhu spring. The same water is added to the spirit emerging from the spirit stills (at about 70% alcohol) to reduce it to "cask strength" of 63.5% when it is placed in casks.

And at Glenfiddich, Robbie Dhu spring water is again used to dilute the whisky to 40% alcohol when it emerges after many years in casks to be bottled. It is much more usual in the industry for the dilution and bottling to take place well away from the distillery, using distilled water for dilution.

And the big bonus of any visit is that the standard distillery tour, taking about an hour, is free: and it is also possible to book a much more in-depth "Connoisseur's Tour".

Visitors to the distillery can also browse the information in the visitor centre while waiting for their tour to assemble, and enjoy the displays in the Malt Barn while sipping their complimentary dram after the tour (or, for drivers, their orange juice while looking forward to opening their free miniature later).

There is also, of course, an on site shop: and being Glenfiddich it is an exceptionally large, welcoming, and well stocked shop which charges very reasonable prices for Glenfiddich and Balvenie single malts.

You can find out more about Making Malt Whisky from our series of feature pages showing the stages in the process.