The people of the Glen Grant distillery are so proud of the fact that their
distillery was founded in 1840 that they put it on all their bottles - well, at
least all their official releases. On the shelves of your average liquorist it
may not seem like such a 'big' brand as, say, Bowmore or Springbank, but
Glen Grant is actually the third largest malt whisky producer in Scotland,
right after Glenfiddich and Macallan and (just) ahead of Glenlivet.

The distillery may have been founded in 1840, but it has seen its fair share of different owners.
In fact, the entrepreneurs that took out a license in 1840 (brothers John & James Grant that had previously worked at the Aberlour distillery) later claimed that Glen Grant was actually founded in 1823
and they had carried on for quite some time before acquiring a license. Due to its excellent location
(along the river Spey, amidst flowing fields of barley with sea ports nearby) Glen Grant prospered after
a license was obtained. During the 1860's the name of the company was changed to J. & J. Grant and
control was transferred to James 'The Major' Grant - son of founding father James Grant 'the elder'.

Due to the generic name it's hard to
keep track of the different owners of
Glen Grant over the years, but in 1952
or 1953 they were 'amalgamated' with
the 'mother company' of Glenlivet into
Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries Ltd.
 
In 1972 this new company merged with
Longmorn-Glenlivet Ltd. and Hill Thomp-
son & Co. into The Glenlivet Distillers.
And then, in 1978, Seagrams bought
Glen Grant and Glenlivet and put them
into their Chivas group. And then, in
2001 Seagrams was gobbled up...

Seagrams was bought by Diageo and Pernod Ricard.
The new owners had to divide the spoils and the Chivas
Group - including distilleries like Aberlour, Glenlivet and
Longmorn - ended up under control of Pernod Ricard.
The family ties with Glenlivet were finally broken when
Davide Campari bought Glen Grant distillery in 2006.
A year later the new owners launched a new packaging
for Glen Grant that reflected the 'tall, slender' shape of
the stills that is supposed to give the Glen Grant malt
whisky its light, fresh profile.

While new owners arrived on the stage and left it again
a few years later for yet another new owner, there had
been some changes on the 'technical' side as well over
the years. In 1973 the number of stills was expanded
from four to to six. The four old stills were all coal fired,
but the new stills were heated by gas. Apparently they
liked it that way, because in 1977 four new gas fired
stills were added, bringing the total to ten pot stills.

1) Glen Grant is the only remaining Scotch single malt whisky which (sort of) bears the name of its founders.

2) In the 1970's Glen Grant had the last water-wheel driven rummager in the whisky industry in Scotland.

3) 'Major' James Grant also built the Caperdonich malt whisky distillery, also known as Glen Grant #2.

4) Glen Grant describes its malt whisky as "a pale whisky with a colourful history".

5) The light style (and perhaps the light colour) of the whisky is said to come from the exceptionally tall stills and the purifiers at their tops. These purifiers were introduced over a century ago.
 

Glen Grant 1972/2006 (46%, Berry Bros, C#1982)
Nose: Light & polished with the faintest hint of something meaty. Very dignified but not especially expressive.
Hint of dust? Developing organics in the nose. Needs time to approach the realm of the 90's.
Taste: Something leathery on the palate - and a lot of tannins. I really like the profile...
Not quite enough body to box in the heavyweight category - it's a tad too thin on the palate.
Score: 89 points - a very worthy contender in the Malt Maniacs Awards 2006.

Glen Grant 1972/2007 (54.9%, The Single Malts of Scotland)
Nose: Fruity and woody. Polished. Classic sherry profile with some unique traits. Coffee beans.
Something nutty in the background? That finally evolved into organics, pushing it to 90 points.
Taste: Smooth with a solid, sweet, woody undercurrent. Great balance, but perhaps a tad woody for some.
Menthol freshness. Yeah, I'd say this deserves a gold medal.
Score: 90 points - one of the top scoring candidates of the MM Awards 2007.

Glen Grant 31yo 1970/2001 (45%, Samaroli, Sherry cask #1025)
Nose: Rich, polished and sherried. Then some organics emerge; a classic profile. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Taste: Smoky and quite extreme in the start, sweetening out in the fruity centre. Very chewy; nice tannins.
Score: 89 points - here is a malt that earns most points on the palate - a sherry monster, not for everybody.
Revision: Again, polished and beautifully balanced in the nose. Hint of perfume. Gooseberry. Not overly complex.
On the palate it was fruity with hints of dust and smoke. Yeah, I'll stick with my initial 89 points for this one.

Glen Grant 36yo 1970/2006 (53,2%, Blackadder Raw Cask, Sherry C#7216, 173 Bts.)
Nose: Like the very dark colour suggests: woody and smoky. Sweet & fruity as well - raisins and blueberries.
Lovely complex fruits - a virtual fruit basket in your glass.
Taste: Delightful fruits here as well. Very solid centre with a touch of liquorice and smoke.
Cough syrup? Brilliant mouth feel! Smoky finish.
Score: 93 points - this ended up in my personal top 3 for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2007.

Glen Grant 1958/2006 (40%, G&M licensed)
Nose: AAAH! Wood, organics, reduced fruits, spices… antiquity. A brilliant nose.
Wonderful development towards the organic side of the spectrum.
Taste: Wow!!! Subtle woody and sherried tones with a touch of smoke. Ultra dry peat.
Very classy, even though it's a tad rough in the finish. In fact, a tad too rough and burning.
Score: 92 points - another Glen Grant ending in the very top echelon of the MM Awards 2007.

Glen Grant 1969/2004 (46%, Berry Bros, Cask #1773)
Nose: Holy cow! Extreme wood, sherry and organics. Fruit cake sweetness.
Gummi bears? Sucade? Some organics as well. This really is my kind of profile.
It changes over time as well; not radically, but different aspects pop up now and then.
One of the most amazing noses I've encountered so far. let's hope it tastes as good...
Taste: Again, loads of sherry and good wood. Unfortunately, it turns very bitter.
It grows very woody and smoky after a while - maybe too much so for some.
Based on the nose I was inclined to go for the upper 90's, but it lets me down.
Preliminary impression: Lower 90's. The palate is just a tad one-dimensional.
Second sampling: Oh, boy! After some breathing the nose seems even bigger.
Sherry and mahogany. Fruit, Spices and organics. This is just magnificent. A winner!
A wonderful sweet fruitiness dominates the palate, but there's a woody counterpoint.
Score: 92 points - it might have gone even higher if the finish hadn't been as smoky.
My enthusiastic response: Confirmation that older sherried Glen Grants can be stunning.

Glen Grant 1956/2005 (46%, G&M Licenced bottling for LMdW, Refill sherry butt, 459 Bts.)
Nose: Paint thinner. Interesting but hard on the nose - you have to dig deep.
Opens up all by itself within a minute, though. This one needs time - but it's more than worth the wait.
Cigar box. Celery. These sort of smells indicate that this is a very old malt indeed.
Taste: Beautiful old fruits on the palate. Orange zest? A beautiful malt with PERFECT balance.
Score: 91 points - although I was tempted on occasion to increase the score to 92.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glen Grant whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

The Glen Grant distillery is located in the small town of Rothes in the main
Speyside whisky region - not far from the Glenrothes distillery. Glen Grant
is one of the top selling malt whiskies in parts of the world; the younger
expressions are particularly popular in Italy. Glen Grant made it into my top
ten thanks to decent, very affordable young OB's and stunning older IB's.

When I write the latest update of this profile (August '08)
Glen Grant was still in my personal Top 10 - even though
the 5yo and 10yo official bottlings are hardly spectacular.
They offer excellent value for money though; the older
expressions by independent bottlers like Berry Brothers
and Gordon & MacPhail take care of the 'spectacularity'.
Very few distilleries can offer such a wide range...

the new owners haven't made any significant changes since the remodeling of the bottles. However, Glen Grant has always been an innovative distillery - they were the first distillery in Scotland with electric lighting for example.
If they start innovating again at Glen Grant, I'll report on it in this distillery profile...