Glen Grant of Speyside – A Scotch Whisky Profile
A profile of Glen Grant, one of Speyside's leading distilleries.
Share
A profile of Glen Grant, one of Speyside's leading distilleries.
Production at Glen Grant is headed up by Master Distiller Dennis Malcolm. He is the third generation of his family to work at the distillery.
Malcolm was born on the estate and started working at the distillery in 1961, with a five-year apprenticeship as a cooper. He became Master Distiller (only the eighth in the history of the distillery) in 2006 and celebrated 60 years in the Scotch whisky industry in 2021.
This distillery use pure spring water from local sources as well as Scottish barley. Maturation takes place in ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks that are all hand selected by Dennis himself. The wash stills have a unique, taller shape compared to other distilleries. This means the production of a lighter and fruitier spirit. The wash and spirit stills also have purifiers which cool the spirit vapour before it reaches the Lynn arm. These tall necks on the stills (only just shorter than the tallest at Glenmorangie) and the purifiers help to create the fruit driven and elegant spirit that Glen Grant is known for.
Glen Grant has been the third largest malt whisky producer in Scotland for some time, after Glenfiddich and Macallan.
Alongside the official distillery releases, there have been some magnificent independent bottlings. Bottlers Gordon & Macphail have some notable old stocks that were purchased from the distillery over previous generations. Maybe even a better selection than Glen Grant themselves!
Bottled and released in 2021 in honour of Dennis Malcolm’s sixty years in the industry, this is the oldest distillery release. The Dennis Malcolm 60th Anniversary Edition is a Sherry butt matured Glen Grant. The release was limited to just 360 decanters, which were made from hand-blown crystal glass by the world famous Glencairn Studio. The decanter shape was created to reflect the distillery’s uniquely tall and slender pot stills. Presented in a walnut presentation case, each decanter required over 15 hours of expert craftsmanship to create.
In June 2022, a bottle of this, beautifully presented in a hand cut crystal decanter and sold alongside a one-off NFT artwork by the well-known political cartoonist Harry Harrison that was titled ‘Year of the Dram 1948’ (the year the whisky was produced) sold for just under GBP 95,000. One of the top five oldest whiskies ever released, this 1948 cask of Glen Grant was named the World’s Finest Single Cask and also the ‘Scottish Single Malt Whisky of the Year’ in 2022. Production of just 290 bottles.
