Glen Ord is a distillery at Muir of Ord, built in 1838 by the local laird Thomas MacKenzie.1,2,3 It makes most of its own malt, in large maltings built beside it in 1968.2,3Diageo has owned it since 1997.2,3
Outstanding review score, 90 out of 100Outstanding90/100
Highly drinkable, with unique fruity notes, balanced dryness and a lovely grapey touch; rather excellent overall.
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By Ruben
, 1919–1939
Silent, 1939–1946
Producing, 1946–today
183819001950Today
Early owners
The site had been a smuggler's bothy, and some sources name licence holders Robert Johnstone and Donald MacLennan as its founders.1,2,3 They went bankrupt in 1847, and the distillery was put on the market.2,3 Alexander McLennan and Thomas McGregor bought it in 1855.2,3 Alexander MacKenzie, a bank clerk from Beauly who married McLennan's widow, took over running it in 1877.2,3 In 1878 he built a new still house, but it burned to the ground almost at once.2,3 In 1882 the Glenoran name was registered for whisky made at Glen Ord.2,3 Alfred Barnard's 1887 survey found 2 pot stills, 8 washbacks, 2 water wheels for power and an annual output of 80,000 gallons.4 Malt was dried with peat and heather, and the whisky sold in Leith and London and went to Singapore and South Africa.4
Sources disagree: when Alexander MacKenzie took over. This page uses 1877.
In 1896 James Watson & Son, blenders from Dundee, bought it for £15,800 and expanded the site.2,3 Watson's already owned 3 other distilleries and mainly sold blends, especially Watson's No. 10.2,3 The government closed it in 1917 to save barley for food during World War I, and it reopened in 1919.3John Dewar & Sons bought it in 1923, and the whisky's name changed back to Glen Ord.2,3 In 1925 Dewar's became part of the Distillers Company Limited, taking Glen Ord with it.2,3 In 1930 it passed to , a subsidiary of the Distillers Company.
War and new maltings
It closed again in 1939 for World War II and did not reopen until 1946.3 In 1961 Saladin boxes replaced its floor maltings.2,3 In 1966 it went up to 6 stills, fitted with steam-heated coils.2,3 In 1968 large maltings were built next to the distillery to serve it and 7 other Scottish Malt Distillers sites.2,3 Glen Ord kept using its own Saladin boxes until 1983.2,3
In 1986 Guinness took over the Distillers Company, and its distilling businesses were organised as United Distillers.2,3,5 Guinness and Grand Metropolitan merged to form Diageo in 1997.2,3 In 2001 Glen Ord became the first company in the UK to treat its wastewater with a Biobed modular plant.3,6 In 2012 Diageo, calling Glen Ord malt a major part of nearly all its main blends, announced a £25 million plan to double capacity.2,3,7 Completed in 2014, the work added a new still house and took capacity to 10m litres of alcohol a year.
Next: Growth under Diageo, How it makes its spirit
The stills are plain in shape and heated by steam.2 Its water comes from Loch Nam Bonnach and Loch Nan Eun, and fermentation lasts 75 hours.2,3 Water in its shell and tube condensers is kept hot to extend contact between vapour and copper, and after-coolers do the condensing.2 Its maltings make malt for all of Diageo's northern distilleries and for Talisker, and sometimes heavily peated malt for Islay.2 Its malt is lightly peated.2 Its new spirit has a 'green grassy' character, from clear wort, long fermentation, a high cut point and copper-rich distillation.2
Outstanding review score, 90 out of 100