Distillery Name: The Glen Grant Distillery
Distillery Location: Speyside
Link to Distillery Website: https://www.glengrant.com/
Tours: https://www.glengrant.com/book-tour/
Tour/Tasting/Experience: The Connoisseur Tour

The Glen Grant Distillery was founded in 1840 by James and John Grant, the former was a prominent politician and the founder of the Morayshire Railway Company, which ran trains from Lossiemouth to Elgin. The creation of the railway not only brought the materials needed for the construction of the distillery but also helped to distribute Glen Grant’s whisky.

James Grant’s son, a military Major, inherited the distillery in 1872 and made a series of changes to the production process (introducing water cooling purifiers and elongated stills) to capture light alcohol vapors and create a fragrant spirit character.

The Major was an innovator and traveler. He brought plants and exotic fruits from his travels in India and Africa and created a beautiful Victorian Garden behind the distillery in 1886. Some features from the garden include a dram pavilion built by James Grant himself and a private whisky safe embedded in a rock.

In 1995, the garden opened to visitors and is now one of the main attractions of the distillery. According to my tour guide, some visitors come to the distillery exclusively to walk through the gardens.

The distillery’s spirit is highly regarded by blenders and has been a component of the Chivas Regal blend. You may also find good releases of Glen Grant through independent bottlers such as Gordon & MacPhail. The distillery was the first one to bottle its single malt on-site.

The malt is the best-selling single malt in Italy and very popular in Germany and France. The Campari Group owns the distillery after purchasing it from Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) in 2006.

Until 1972 the distillery used peat, but the malt was always lightly peated. There is no malting on-site, and mashing takes about six hours for 60K liters of wort. Fermentation takes about 48 hours and produces alcohol at 8% ABV.

The distillery has four wash stills and four spirit stills, all heated with direct fire until 1996 when the distillery switched to steam. The distillery uses a purifier in both distillations to refine the alcohol vapors and create a light and fragrant new make spirit.

If you would like to read more about Chivas Regal, click here: https://thewhiskyknights.com/chivas-regal-12/

The Glen Grant Distillery experience

The Connoisseur Tour: My experience consisted of a distillery tour, a guided tasting of four single malts and access to the Victorian Gardens.

In addition to my tour, The Glen Grant offers a traditional distillery tour that includes a tasting of two The Glen Grant Single Malt Whiskies with access to the Victorian Garden.

The Whiskies I Tried on The Glen Grant Distillery

The Glen Grant Arboralis ($)

This expression does not have an age statement, aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks and bottled at 40% ABV. A 2020 release for about £28 a bottle. The palate has floral and fruity notes of raisins, honey, and oak spices.

Score: 3/5⭐

The Glen Grant 10 Years Old ($)

This single malt matured for ten years in an ex-bourbon cask, bottled at 40% ABV. The palate is more elegant than that of the previous sample. The fruit notes are pears and apples and a malty/cereal flavor. The oak is more present in this malt but does not dominate. Not overly complex but easy to drink. This malt retails for £34.

Score: 3.25/5⭐

The Glen Grant 12 Years Old ($)

This single malt matured for 12 years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, bottled at 43% ABV, and chilled filtered. There is also duty-free 12-year-old expression bottled at 48% ABV and non-chilled filtered.

The palate is more complex than the previous two malts, with notes of dried fruits and spices from the oak but more vanilla and caramel. This malt retails for £40.

Score: 3.5/5⭐

The Glen Grant 15 Years Old ($$)

The oldest malt in the tasting was aged in 1st fill bourbon cask for 15 years and bottled at 50% ABV.

The palate reminds me of ice cream, vanilla, and caramel, a bit spicy with light smoke. The malt brings more complexity to the table than all previous expressions in this tasting. The best malt overall.

This malt retails for £60.

Score: 3.75/5⭐

After sampling these four single malts, my tour guide took me for a walk through the Victorian Garden. As we walked through the upper part of the trail, the tour guide entered a small covered area, took a key out of her pocket, opened a safe, and said: “The tasting is not over. Welcome to the Victorian Garden”, finally she hands me a glass, and from a whisky thief pours The Glen Grant 18 Years old. As you can imagine, I am on cloud nine at this point. The malt and the beautiful garden made my day. What a classy touch!

What I liked about the experience 🙂

• I was the only visitor taking that tour in that time slot, so I had a one-on-one interaction with my tour guide that allowed me to ask many questions.
• The Victorian Garden walk is an experience that makes this tour special. I highly recommend taking this tour with your significant other. The dram taken from the Major’s private whisky safe was excellent and exclusive of the Connoisseur tour.

What I did not like about the experience 🙁

Nothing. The Glen Grant distillery is a must-visit distillery.

Score: 4/5⭐

Legend
$50 or less $
$51-$100 $$
$101-$150 $$$
$151 or more $$$$