Glenfiddich means Valley of the Deer in Gaelic, and the classic logo of the brand is a stag, which echoes each other. Located in Dufftown, Speyside, Scotland, United Kingdom, it is now owned by William Grant & Sons and is one of the few single malt whisky distilleries that has been independently operated by the family from beginning to end.
In the summer of 1886, William Grant decided to resign as the manager of the Mortlach distillery. With the wish of "brewing the best whisky in the valley", he began to build his own distillery with the support of his children. A year later, a distillery named "Glenfiddich" was completed, and the first batch of single malt whisky was brewed at Christmas of that year. In the 1920s, many distilleries reduced production due to the introduction of the Prohibition in the United States, but Glenfiddich still maintained a trend of increasing production. After the repeal of Prohibition, consumers' demand for high-quality aged whiskey surged, and Glenfiddich, as one of the only six Scottish distilleries left under Prohibition, ushered in a golden opportunity for development.
In 1961, Glenfiddich began to use a triangular prism-shaped bottle designed by Hans Schleger. This design is unique and avant-garde, incorporating the three major elements involved in Glenfiddich's brewing - water, air and barley malt. In 1963, Glenfiddich sold whiskey outside of Scotland with single malt as its selling point, becoming the first single malt whiskey brand to break out of Scotland and target global consumers. Since then, Glenfiddich has maintained its spirit of innovation and became the first Scottish distillery open to the public in 1969. Today, under the generations of the Grant family, Glenfiddich continues its unique brewing tradition, while boldly innovating and pursuing perfection, which is one of the reasons why it is popular all over the world.
In 2001, Glenfiddich released the world's oldest single malt whisky, cask number 843. Ten successive warehouse masters watched over the cask until Malt Master David Stewart finally declared it ready for aging and bottling. After 64 years, there was only enough for 61 bottles. The distillery also built a Solera cask in 1997. Since the first whisky was released in 1998, the cask has been kept at least half full, and the Glenfiddich 15 Year Old whisky has matured in this cask before being bottled, becoming more and more mellow.
Winemaking
Since 2009, Glenfiddich's Chief Distiller has been Brian Kinsman. Brian was taught by the former Chief Distiller David Stewart and mastered the distillery's unique distilling techniques. Under Brian's professional guidance, the distillery first mixes the ground malt with Robbie Dhu spring water in the mash barrel to make wort, and then transfers the wort to large wooden fermentation barrels for fermentation to produce a mash with an alcohol content of 9%. During the distillation process, the mash will be distilled in the Wash Still primary still to produce a low-alcohol wine with an alcohol content of about 21%, and these low-alcohol wines will continue to be distilled in the Spirit Still. The liquid obtained after distillation and cooling will be divided into the head, heart and tail, and only the pure and fruity heart will be put into American oak barrels or Spanish Oloroso oak barrels selected by Chief Cooper Ian McDonald for aging. When the liquor in different barrels reaches the desired aging state, the distillery will transfer them to large Portuguese oak barrels for 9 months to blend, thus brewing a smooth, consistent and unique premium Scotch whisky. Before bottling, the distillery will also add an appropriate amount of Robbie Dhu spring water to the liquor, and finally mix a single malt whisky with an alcohol content of about 40%.
Glenfiddich 12-year-old single malt whisky has two unique features. First, the bottle is designed as a triangular green bottle, which is unique in Single Malt and can be called Glenfiddich's registered trademark. In addition, this wine is aged entirely in new oak barrels, which is also rare in Single Malt. Therefore, breaking through the traditional whisky practice and focusing on single malt whisky, its fresh and delicate taste immediately became the favorite of connoisseurs and the new favorite in the market, and it is the world's best-selling and most authoritative Scottish single malt whisky.
