Bill Smith Grant wasn’t meant to inherit The Glenlivet. But as Iain Russell reports, his bold business decisions once he did revolutionised the whisky and made it famous
Bill Smith Grant didn’t intend to become a distiller. His father, George, had stipulated in his will that Bill’s elder brother John should inherit The Glenlivet Distillery on his 25th birthday, in March 1914. Bill was destined to farm a few hundred acres, or perhaps become ‘something in the city.’ T...
Whisky legends
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
With Glen Grant up for sale it’s timely to look at the man behind the distillery. Iain Russell reports
Major James Grant was the archetypal Victorian laird. Short in stature and stocky of build, he dressed for most occasions in his Grant tartan kilt and Glengarry bonnet.
He spent long hours fishing on the River Spey or bagging grouse on a Highland moor, and he travelled half way round the world to h...
Whisky History
from Issue 53 published on 12/01/2006
The recent Pernod Ricard-Allied deal reunited two great whisky names. But they were linked once before by whisky entrepreneur Jimmy Barclay. Iain Russell reports
Pernod Ricard’s acquisition of Allied Domecq will bring together two of the great names in the whisky world, in the form of their subsidiaries Chivas Brothers and George Ballantine & Son.
But the connection between the two goes back to the 1920s and involves the legendary whisky wheeler-dealer Jimm...
Whisky History
from Issue 52 published on 30/11/2005
