Whisky Magazine – August 2019

Issue 161 | Whisky Magazine 45

Distillery Focus Glenturret

Opening pages:

Glenturret Distillery.

These pages, from

main left picture:

John Laurie, general

manager; Drinking

with Glenturret;

Distillery manager

Ian Renwick; A cask

of 1991 Glenturret.

GETTING TECHNICAL

Water source: Mains

Malt: Concerto, Laureate and Sienna

Mashing: Open stainless-steel manual mash tun – 1.05

tonnes mash, 10 mashes per week

Fermentation: 8 Douglas Fir washbacks, washback charge

6,000 litres. 80-110-hour fermentations.

Distillation: 1 wash still (12,000 litres charge) – 1 spirit still

(6,500 litres charge)

Distillery capacity: 340,000 lpa, with plans to increase in future

would wait for the right buyer to

come along.”

When Edrington put Glenturret up

for sale, the company received around

100 ‘notes of interest,’ which were

whittled down to some two dozen by

the Edrington team, with presentations

being made to the ‘finalists’ by

Glenturret general manager John Laurie

and Ian Renwick. “They had to prove

their worth to Edrington,” says Renwick.

John Laurie notes that, “From the

very start of the process one thing that

came over loud and clear from Lalique

was their keen interest in the history

and heritage of Glenturret.

"You knew early on they were going

to be respectful custodians of this really

beautiful site. The added benefit was

Lalique having a presence in the spirits

world through their brand associations

with Patrón, Beluga vodka and, of

course, The Macallan. It isn’t a huge

leap for them to play in the single malt

whisky world themselves.”

The much-vaunted history of

Glenturret is reputed to have begun

in 1775, which is the given date of

establishment, and certainly illicit

distilling was taking place there at that

time. However, Glenturret was first

licensed to John Drummond, under the

name Hosh, in 1818, with the Glenturret

name being adopted during 1875.

The distillery closed in 1921, and

eight years later, the equipment

was dismantled, with the buildings

subsequently being used for

agricultural storage.

Glenturret remained silent until

businessman James Fairlie acquired

the premises in 1957 and proceeded

to re-equip it for distilling, utilising the

mash tun and stills from Tullibardine

distillery, which was being upgraded at

the time. Production recommenced two

years later.

Ownership passed to Rémy-Cointreau

in 1981, with Highland Distillers taking

over nine years later. In 1999 The

Edrington Group and William Grant &

Sons Ltd purchased Highland Distillers

for £601 million, operating as The 1887

Company, with Edrington owning 70

per cent of the shares.

Glenturret is arguably as well

known for a cat as for its single malt,

and a bronze bust commemorates the

achievements of Towser, the former

distillery mouser, who earned herself a

place in the Guinness Book of Records by

apparently accounting for a remarkable

28,899 mice dispatched during her

24 years at the distillery. Today, the

tradition continues with a pair of

felines, named Glen and Turret.

Both were included in the sale to

Glenturret Holding, which handed over

£31 million for the distillery and stocks,

including in excess of one million litres

of maturing Glenturret single malt,

the oldest of which was filled to cask

back in 1987, along with 2,400 cases of

bottled whisky.

As well as a distillery and its stocks,

Glenturret Holding has also acquired

the services of two men who have been

intimately involved in the success of

The Macallan over recent years, namely

Ken Grier and Bob Dalgarno.

Grier was formerly creative director

at The Macallan, and has a strategic

consultancy role at Glenturret, while

Dalgarno – The Macallan’s whisky

maker – takes on the same role at

Glenturret, bringing more than 30 years

of experience to the position.

“Bob and I are looking forward to not

only continuing with our existing spirit

style, but getting the freedom with our

new owners to dedicate some time each

month to Innovation,” says Ian Renwick.

“We are both very excited about this

opportunity. To have someone with

Bob’s experience guiding this as well

gives me great confidence about what

we have to come. Bob is also very into

the wood side of things, and we have

an ambitious cask plan for the calendar

year 2019, while Bob is already

planning for 2020.

“We’ve filled a few sauternes casks

from Silvio Denz’s vineyards, and we’ll

LOWLANDS

HIGHLANDS

SCOTLAND

GLENTURRET

DISTILLERY

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