Whisky Mash Festival Exhibitor - Glen Garioch
Named for ‘The Garioch’ (pronounced ‘Geery’ in our local dialect, Doric), a highly fertile stretch of land in Aberdeenshire, Glen Garioch bears a legacy as being one of the oldest established distilleries in Scotland, founded in 1797, though it is rumoured to have been distilling from a much, much earlier date. Between the 1800’s and 1930’s, Glen Garioch was passed on down through a series of owners, allowing it to continue production while many other easterly distilleries faltered and closed until landing in the hands of Distillers Company Limited in 1937. It continued in production until 1968 when it and Brora were considered as the sites which could produce heavily-peated whisky for Distillers Company Limited’s blending requirements.
Glen Garioch had always struggled for water and it was felt that this would impact on an increase in production. DCL’s response to this was to close Glen Garioch, and re-open Brora. Two years later, the Glasgow broker Stanley P. Morrison bought it. The firm brought in a local water diviner to attempt to locate a better water source, which as luck would have it, a spring was soon discovered on a neighbouring farm. It came to be called ‘The Silent Spring’ as it could neither be seen nor heard. Production not only restarted following this discovery, but increased.
With the excellent 1797 Founders Reserve firmly at the heart of their range, Glen Garioch also periodically release hand selected single batch releases which are sure to tantalise fans of their silky smooth and highly delicious whiskies!
