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Surrounded by open farmland beneath the barren, hump‐backed slopes of Ben Rinnes in Speyside, Glenfarclas can seem like a lonesome place to make whisky. But for its large number of warehouses, from a distance it looks more like a farm steading than a distillery, and for much of its history the farm mattered more than the whisky.
Asked when that changed, sales director George Grant smiles. “Oh, about 1990,” he says, and he’s only half joking. “It really has been in the past 30 years that it has become a serious business.” Whisky was a sideline project in 1865 when his ancestor, John Grant, bought the Recherlich Farm and its distillery, established by a previous tenant 30 years earlier. Glenfarclas was valued at just £511, and for the next two decades it was run by a local distiller, John Smith.
While these farmyard roots are not uncommon among whisky distilleries, in an industry dominated by corporate giants Glenfarclas is almost unique in that it remains independent and is owned by the same family. Representing the sixth generation, George Grant claims family ownership speeds up decision‐making no end. “You can be much more fleet of foot and more fluid,” he says. “And it gives a face to the brand.”
Date & Time
Mon, Apr 17, 2023 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Venue Details
Milroy's of Soho
3 Greek StreetGreater London, London W1D 4NX
