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White Gold –
1970s JOHN L S GRANT tells the
story about GLENFARCLAS |
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1970s product range,
"Glenfarclas All Malt Whisky" featuring ages: 21, 25, 8,
12, 15 and 12 again. |
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Demand for Glenfarclas
continued to increase and, in October 1970, my father
was running the distillery with a record 15 mashes each
week. However, his cause was not helped by some
particularly dry summers. His 1972 diary tells that, due
to drought, it was the end of November before the
distillery could run at full production after the summer
‘silent season’. No wonder his diary entry for 30th
April, 1973 describes a late spring snowfall as ‘white
gold’.
With demand for Glenfarclas outstripping supply, my
father’s priority at the time was to increase capacity.
Therefore, a deal with Chivas Brothers in 1973 could not
have come at a better time. Not only was it one of our
largest filling orders ever, it was secured for 20 years,
allowing my father to press ahead with expansion plans.
The malt barns and kiln were converted into an expanded
mash house, tun room and mill, and two new stills were
added. By 1975, the project was complete – and the |
capacity of the distillery had
been doubled. Despite the high demand, the early 70s presented
major challenges. Rapid inflation was playing havoc with the
cost of raw materials. The price for malted barley doubled from
£57/tonne in 1973 to £114/tonne in 1974. Fuel prices too were
soaring and I suspect my father questioned the wisdom of his
decision to convert the stills from coal to LPG in 1973 when the
price rose from £22.50/tonne to £48.50/tonne within a year.
On 1st July, 1973, we opened the distillery visitor centre, one
of the first in the country. We had always welcomed guests but,
as interest in distilleries grew and numbers increased, it was
becoming impractical for our production staff to look after them.
Having a dedicated team to look after our guests (and maybe sell
them the odd bottle) was the way forward.
Construction of the visitor centre was unconventional to say the
least. At auction, my father bought the wooden panels from the
first class smoking lounge on the ocean liner, Empress of
Australia, and designed the centre around them. Interest in
distillery tours, featuring a dram in the ‘ships room’, was
exceptional. We had 1000 guests in the first month alone.
In 1974, after three years each with Bank of Scotland and Wm
Teacher Distillers Ltd, I joined the family firm. This was all
well and good but, at first, it wasn’t entirely clear what I
should do! Eventually, after some discussions with my father and
a period of learning the ropes, it was agreed that I should
concentrate on building sales of our own bottlings. It was a
challenge I relished. One of the first distributors I appointed
was Mahler-Besse SA in France; they remain our French
distributor today.
The Grant family tree sprouted another branch when my son,
George Stewart, was born on 17th August, 1976 – the sixth
generation of Grants at Glenfarclas had arrived.
Another notable arrival was Margaret Thatcher, who visited for
lunch and a dram in May 1977. There were no such indulgences for
John Miller, who was under the legal drinking age when he joined
the company as a cooper in 1978. Fifteen years later, he had
worked his way up to Distillery Manager. |
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| “We
have bottled The Family Casks collection
at natural colour in clear flint bottles,
so you can enjoy the full palette of
colours that make up Glenfarclas. But
the casks from the 1970s are a warning
not to taste purely on what you see!
Take Cask 61 from 1977, for example. It
is very light on the eye, but has a
honey-sweetness on the nose which one
would normally only expect from a much
darker dram.” |
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George S
Grant |
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1979 distillery staff
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