Founded in 1886 and located north of dufftown on the river fiddich, this is probably the most famous brand of scotch. William Grant bought a field beneath the shadow of the balvenie castle and laid the foundation stone for the distillery in the autumn of 1886. On Christmas day 1887 the spirit ran for the first time from the still, 223 gallons of glenfiddich. Now there are 28 stills producing this world famous whisky.
Glenfiddich is the most awarded malt distiller in the world, holding 3 top 10 awards. Glenfiddich was introduced to the world in 1963 when exports began to both England and America, it is now the most recognized malt brand in the world. It was launched with its distinctive three sided bottle and to this day all of their bottlings are packaged in this way. According to Ian Miller, the global brands ambassador for Glenfiddich, “it’s so it won’t roll out from under the bed”.
Single malt whiskies account for only 9% of whisky sales and Glenfiddich holds between 18 and 20% of that market. As one of the few Scottish family owned and operated distillery in Scotland certainly goes to show just how committed they are to their craft.
The flagship bottling launched in 1963 was an un-aged stated single malt, reputed to be an 8 year old their, at about the turn of the this century it was replaced by their 12 year old. Over the years numerous bottlings have appeared but it seems that over and lately they have settled on the 12 year old, the 15 year old - soon to have the Solera name back on the label, the 18 year old and the 21 year old malt. They do however continue to pull out some rare old casks and bottle them for select markets, at present they have a 1977, 31 year old single barrel expression produced for the Alberta market. October this year (2010) Glenfiddich unveiled it’s 30, 40 and 50 year old expressions to our market although only a couple of each were available.
