Glenfiddich

William Grant left his job as manager of Mortlach to start up on his own, building beside the River Fiddich.^1,2,3 He fitted second-hand stills bought from Cardhu.^2,3,4 Owner records list the Glenfiddich Distillery Co from 1896 until William Grant & Sons took over in 1903.⁵ Whiskypedia says the Aberdeen blender William Williams bought its whole early output; a company history says much of it went to blenders such as Pattison.^5,6 Pattison went bankrupt in the 1898 whisky crash, and the firm lost its largest customer.^5,6 Glenfiddich and Balvenie began blending their whiskies as Grant's; Grace's Guide dates this to 1898, a company history to 1903.^6,7

Wartime shortages of raw materials stopped production in 1917, and it did not restart until 1919.⁶ William Grant died in 1923, and his grandson Grant Gordon increased whisky production despite Prohibition.^4,6,8 By the end of Prohibition, the company says, Glenfiddich was one of only six Scottish distilleries still working.^4,6,8

In 1957 Charles Gordon, William Grant's great-grandson, brought coppersmiths on site to build and tend the stills.^4,8 In 1959 Gordon Grant, as the official history names him, set up a cooperage, a workshop for casks, one of the few left at a distillery.^4,9 In 1963, after a grain supply dispute that also led the firm to build its Girvan grain plant, it decided to bottle and promote Glenfiddich as a single malt.^1,4,5 In 1969 it became the first Scottish distillery to open a visitors' centre.⁵ A major investment in 1974 added 16 new stills.⁵