A historical bottling of the famous flagship blend from Grant's mostly produced with grain whisky distilled at Girvan.

William Grant was born in Dufftown in 1839 and worked as a shoemaker in his youth before becoming a bookkeeper at Mortlach distillery where he worked for 20 years. During this time he married and had nine children. After this, he decided that he wanted to open his own distillery. One year after leaving Mortlach, in 1887, he and his family built Glenfiddich distillery. The first distillation happened on Christmas day in 1887. Business boomed, and soon Grant was able to build a second distillery, Balvenie, five years later, and a third, Convalmore, two years after that. These distilleries are situated right next to each other.

1899 saw William Grant’s first blends introduced to the market. His son-in-law, Charles Gordon, and his son. John, spent some time travelling to secure new markets for the whisky. John secured markets in the west by closing a deal with a Canadian company. Charles Gordon travelled to the Far East and Australia in 1909. Charles Gordon died in 1929 and the business was taken over by William Grant Gordon until his premature death in 1953 at the age of 53. Then, the company was handed to his two sons, Charles and Alexander. 

By this time, William Grant & Sons had a signature blend called Grant’s Stand Fast. This blend was popular and well-established. For a long time, WM Grant & Sons had been relying on Cambus and Caledonian – owned by DCL – to supply grain whisky for their blends. In 1963, Charles Gordon oversaw the construction of Girvan grain distillery. Upon completion, the distillery served as a reminder that WM Grant & Sons production was now entirely in their hands. 

Meanwhile, Alexander Gordon had been focusing on marketing their new ‘straight malt’ – the term ‘single malt’ did not yet exist. Until this point, single malts had been used to make blends due to blended whisky being extremely popular in the sixties. In 1963 Alexander started to promote Glenfiddich Straight Malt on a global scale, and began using Glenfiddich’s iconic green bottle. As Glenfiddich was the first brand to market single malt on such a scale, they had a head start. Soon, other brands began following suit. None was a match for Glenfiddich, and it remains one of the biggest selling single malt Scotch whiskies in the world. 

In 1990 William Grant & Sons built Kininvie and Dufftown, and in 2007 they built Alisa Bay on the site of Girvan. Girvan also serves as the place of production for Hendrick’s Gin as of 1999. 

In 2005, William Grant & Sons released Monkey Shoulder: a blend of Glenfiddich, Balvenie, and Kininvie single malts. 

In 2010, the company decided to capitalise on the popularity of Irish whiskey by buying the Tullamore Dew brand. Tullamore Dew used to be produced at Midleton but is now produced at Clonminch, an exclusive Tullamore Dew distillery. 

In 2014, William Grant & Sons bought Drambuie, a popular liqueur brand. 

As of today, William Grant & Sons is still family-owned, and is now run by Glenn Gordon – the great-great-grandson of William Grant.