Glendronach Distillery

Glendronach’s story

Glendronach is a distillery located in the northeastern part of Aberdeenshire in the Highlands.  It is located close to the hamlet of Forgue, close to the larger town in Huntly.  The whisky produced at Glendronach was historically used as an ingredient for blended Scotch whisky brands, such as Ballantine’s and Teacher’s, but now most is allocated for single malt release as the distillery’s popularity has grown.

The production capacity of the distillery is two million litres per annum and the current owners are Brown-Forman, the American spirits company who took control in 2016.  They have continued the good work of the previous ownership, the Benriach Distillery Co, who resurrected the fortunes of the ailing distillery by refurbishing, increasing production, expanding the core range of single malts and exposing them to a wider audience. 

The distillery and brand is now known for its use of ex-sherry casks from Spain for maturing their spirit. This leads to a rich and fruity style of single malt. In fact, founder James Allardice is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of using this style of cask. He often travelled around the wine regions of Europe and worked out that the characteristics of old sherry casks worked particularly well with the heavy, oily style of spirit that his stills were producing at Glendronach.

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Glendronach’s history

Glendronach was founded in 1826 by a business consortium headed by James Allardice.  Allardice was an innovator and made Glendronach one of the first distilleries to use sherry casks to mature their whisky.  This created a new flavour profile within the industry and therefore made it very desirable for drinkers and blending companies alike.  The majority of the distillery was gutted by a serious fire in 1837, resulting in a full refurbishment.  In 1852, Walter Scott, the former owner of Teaninich distillery in the northern Highlands, took control of Glendronach.  He built the distillery up to the level so that by the mid 1860s, Glendronach was paying the largest amount of duty of any distillery in Scotland. 

Scott died in 1887 and the license was taken over by Somerville & Company from Leith.  They remained in control until 1920 when Charles Grant, the son of Glenfiddich founder William Grant, bought the distillery for £9,000 (£337,000 in today’s money).  The large blending company William Teacher & Sons took control in 1960 so as to secure a constant supply of Glendronach whisky for their range of blends.  Allied Breweries (which later became Allied Domecq) took over William Teacher & Sons in the mid 1970s and operated the distillery until they decided to mothball it in 1996.  Mothballing is when a distillery is closed down but remains intact so it can be restarted at any time in the future.

It would not re-open until 2002 and has seen its fair share of ownership changes since. In 2005 Glendronach became part of Chivas Brothers, a division of drinks giant Pernod Ricard.  Then the Benriach Distillery Company, took control in 2008 – they also owned Benriach in Speyside and would go on to acquire the coastal Highland distillery of Glenglassaugh in 2013. They were responsible for converting Glendronach from a sought after blenders malt to a renowned and award-winning single malt brand. Brown-Forman, the American spirits firm, purchased all three distilleries from the Benriach Distillery Co. in 2016 and have consolidated this direction. Glendronach has also featured in The Kingsman movies on the big screen.

• How to pronounce Glendronach? glen-dron-ack
• Country: Scotland
• Region: Highlands
• Founded: 1826
• Current owners: Brown-Forman
• Production capacity per year: 2 million litres
• Mash tun: 3.7 ton iron
• Washbacks: 9
• Stills: 4

The Glendronach Distillery
Forgue By Huntly
Aberdeenshire
AB5 4DB
tel – +44(0)1466 730 202
www.glendronachdistillery.com

Did you know?

Glendronach was the last distillery in Scotland to have coal fired stills. As a result, the metal at the base of the pot still is thicker than in many others, as it had to deal with direct fire and intense heat. This was replaced by a modern steam heating system in 2005.