The best deal possible

Glenmorangie House lies some seven or eight miles from the distillery, and driving up to it on a dark and windy night is like driving back in time.

We arrive late, and already guests are coming down for dinner and meeting for drinks in a spacious and stylish lounge. It is like walking on to the set of an Agatha Christie film.

But we have picked a good time to be here. Tomorrow the management of Glenmorangie will travel to Tain to formally announce what the purchase by LVMH will mean.

Twenty four hours from now staff at the house will say that they learned nothing new at the meeting – but that's the point. The company is already allaying fears by being totally transparent and when we arrive our hosts can hardly suppress their smiles.

How different from a few weeks back, when I wrote of the uncertainty and trepidation over the sale. For while much has been made of the fate of Glenmorangie's three distilleries, that's only part of the story. The staff at the luxurious Glenmorangie House; the workers at the bottling plant, by far and away the single largest group; and those at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society; they all have a stake in this too.

Indeed, in the case of the bottling plant, many predicted its immediate demise. That hasn't happened, the feeling is that they have struck gold and that this is the best deal possible.

There is even talk of LVMH bottling some of its other products at the Glenmorangie plant.

Nor does the good news end there. The indications are tha...

• By : Dominic Roskrow
• In : Columnists
• Issue : 44
• Page : 5
• Words : 625