The Glenlivet Distillery, Speyside: The One That Started It All

Overview

The Glenlivet is one of the best-selling single malts in the world and, in a real sense, the distillery that made Speyside legal. Its whisky is the bright, floral, orchard-fruit classic that many people meet first — smooth, approachable and consistent — made high in the remote Livet valley south of the Spey.

The history

The Glenlivet’s founder, George Smith, was a farmer and illicit distiller who, after the 1823 Excise Act made small-scale legal distilling viable, took out the first licence in the parish of Glenlivet in 1824 — a brave move that so enraged the surrounding smugglers that he is said to have carried a pair of pistols for years. The glen’s whisky became so famous that dozens of other distilleries borrowed the name, until an 1884 legal case established that only Smith’s could be called The Glenlivet. It has been a giant of the industry ever since.

The water & the land

The Glenlivet is made with water from Josie’s Well, a mineral-rich spring in the Livet valley — slightly hard water, fed from the River Livet catchment, that suits the distillery’s clean, fruity style.

Its clan connection is one of the strongest of any distillery. George Smith farmed and distilled as a tenant of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon — Clan Gordon — on whose vast Glenlivet estate the whole illicit trade had flourished. It was the Duke himself who championed the 1823 Act in Parliament and then urged his tenants to go legal; Smith taking the first licence was, in effect, the Duke’s policy made real. The modern global brand grew directly out of that landlord-and-tenant story.

How it’s made

The Glenlivet is one of the biggest malt distilleries in Scotland: fourteen copper stills — seven wash stills of about 15,000 litres and seven spirit stills of about 10,000 litres, tall-necked to give a light, fruity spirit — fed by a single mash tun and seven washbacks, with water from Josie’s Well and nearby springs. It is made unpeated and matured in a mix of bourbon and French oak casks. Output runs to roughly 10.5 million litres of pure alcohol a year after expansions in 2010 and 2015, enough for around six million bottles. Owned by Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Brothers, it is the biggest-selling single malt in the United States and the second-biggest single malt brand in the world, after Glenfiddich.

Visiting

The Glenlivet has a refurbished visitor centre and runs tours and tastings — including archive tastings of rare old bottlings — which should be pre-booked. It generally opens Tuesday to Saturday and closes over the festive period; check the website. The drive up into the remote glen is beautiful in its own right.

Nearby & more whisky

• Down the glen, a few miles on: Tamnavulin — production only, with access mainly during the Spirit of Speyside festival.
• Further up into the hills, about ten miles: Tomintoul — “the gentle dram” from one of the highest villages in the Highlands, tours on set weekdays.
• Over the hill: Braeval — one of the most out-of-the-way distilleries in Speyside, production only.
• The glen’s bloodiest day: the Battle of Glenlivet, 1594, fought in these hills.
• More Speyside history: Cardhu.
• Planning a day of it? Our Speyside Whisky Trail covers this as one of its spurs — the high glens, the smuggling country and the Moray coast.
• The Glenlivet among the oldest & most historic distilleries
• The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all
• In Glenrinnes below Ben Rinnes: Allt-à-Bhainne, the peated Speyside malt

Sources

• The Glenlivet distillery — Wikipedia.
• The Glenlivet / Chivas Brothers; Scotchwhisky.com Whiskypedia.