Glen Grant Distillery, Rothes: Pale, Dry and Orchard-Fresh

Glen Grant Distillery, Rothes: Pale, Dry and Orchard-Fresh

✅Open to visitors — this distillery has a visitor centre and/or tours (some by appointment; book ahead — see the box below).

Glen Grant at a glance

RegionSpeyside (Rothes, Moray)
Founded1840
OwnerCampari Group
Visitor centreYes — plus the restored Victorian gardens
ToursBooking essential (18+), set times
Opening~Mon–Fri (verify) — check the website
Websitetheglengrant.com
CLANGRANT“Stand Fast”

Overview

Glen Grant, in the little distilling town of Rothes, makes a deliberately pale, dry, orchard-fresh single malt — a lighter, more delicate style that has made it, remarkably, one of the best-selling malts in the world in Italy in particular. Its great glory is its restored Victorian garden, one of the loveliest settings of any distillery in Scotland.

The history

Glen Grant was founded in 1840 by brothers John and James Grant, former illicit distillers who built a large, ambitious distillery and were pioneers — Rothes had its railway and Glen Grant was one of the first distilleries lit by electricity. The distillery’s character was set by James’s son, the flamboyant “Major” James Grant, a great traveller who laid out the extraordinary woodland garden, complete with a hidden dram safe by the burn, and who introduced the tall stills and purifiers that give the whisky its pale, clean style.

The water & the land

Glen Grant is made with water from the Caperdonich Well — in Gaelic Tobar Domhnaich, roughly “the secret well” — together with the Back Burn that runs through the Major’s garden, both feeding the Spey. Tall stills and purifiers keep the spirit light and delicate.

The founding brothers were of Clan Grant stock, and Rothes sat within the country of the Grants and their chiefly line, the Earls of Seafield — so, like several Speyside distilleries, Glen Grant carries the Grant name into the heart of Grant country. (It should not be confused with the unrelated Grant family of Glenfarclas, or the Glenfiddich Grants.)

Visiting

Glen Grant runs tours and tastings for which booking is essential (over-18s only), at set times; it generally opens on weekdays, but check the website before travelling, as the garden and centre have at times been under renovation. The garden alone is worth the visit.

Nearby & more whisky

Sources