Great Families of Whisky

FAMILIES OF Whisky WORDS BEN CANAIDER

I blame Protestantism. I blame the visionary Scottish Education Act of 1872. I blame a harsh winter climate. I blame the Viking blood that still surges through Scottish veins, making for a determined and not-so quietly martial people. I blame prudence and parsimony and a certain penny-wisdom - and a strong sense of personal responsibility. I blame an undying Scottish half-contempt for the sassenach.

I blame the Scots. Whisky is all their fault.

And a fault compounded, entrenched, and unrelenting thanks to one simple, unadorned Scottish truism: family. Clannishness. They bond together like the hoops of steel that keep their whisky barrels bound. Through life and through business.

Whisky: it is no wonder that this remarkable gift given - I’m sorry, I mean sold… - and sold to the entire world, is riven with family ties and familial bonds. Whisky. It’s like a liquid tartan. Where it is from and how its story is told is in every way as important as every other vital Scottish cultural touchstone. And the families that have made and continue to make whisky are apt demonstrations of this history. No doubt you’re familiar with some of them.

JOHNNIE WALKER

Talk about cometh the hour, cometh the man… John Walker was a quintessential 19th Century Industrial Revolution entrepreneur. Not that the Scots have a word for entrepreneur… His father died when John was young, but left him enough money to go into business. Groceries. A Grocer’s Shop stocked whisky. But whisky then was variable in its quality and strength and flavour. John Walker solved this problem of inconsistency. Blending. He gave his customers a reliable, unchanging, dependable and well-priced staple. Like a French wine negociant, a Champagne house, or an Australian brewer, he realised that blending irregular components could make for more than the sum of the parts. The Johnnie Walker brand was introduced in 1908 when the striding man was created.

John Walker’s son, Alexander, was also an entrepreneur and innovator. Even though he inherited a successful business, Alexander created the first commercial blend ‘Old Highland Whisky’ and did what a well-brought up Scotsman would do: expand. Export. Innovation in both logistics and marketing - and he wasn’t John Walker’s son Alexander Walker

even an American… His sons, Alexander II and George Paterson Walker followed in his footsteps, with the Red and Black label created under their watchful eye.

1860: a square bottle. Less space in transportation and fewer breakages in said logistics. Individual ship’s captains invited to be distributors for Johnnie Walker whisky, as they sailed and steamed to far-off places - a sort of early franchise system. Red and black and simple colours to stratify labels and levels of quality. By 1920 Johnnie Walker was sold in 120 countries. By 1934 a Royal Warrant, which it still holds today. The colours for different labels continued, and the confidently “striding man” became the label’s logo.

Walker shop

The Skater (Portrait of William Grant), by Gilbert Stuart, 1782, American painting, oil on canvas

WILLIAM GRANT & SONS

In 1886, at the age of 47, with his nine children alongside him, William Grant - having worked all his life in distilleries and having saved the money - laid the first stone at his first and very own distillery - Glenfiddich. One hundred thirty-five years later, a descendant of Grant - Glenn Gordon - still runs the expanded company. A family company through and through, which is clearly working, as Grant’s is the third biggest producer of Scotch whisky, with just a touch or wee dram more than 10per cent of total market share.

Besides the rapid expansion that Grant undertook (buying a neighbouring distillery - Balvenie - in 1892), the company was - like Johnnie Walker - not dissimilarly innovative. Where Walker came up with a square bottle, Grant’s created a gently triangular bottle. As a trademark and marketing move, it proved incredibly successful, particularly with actors, who liked the way the triangular bottle could not accidentally roll off the stage during rehearsals. Or performance.

Grant also started to actively make and market single malt whisky, which, in the late 19th century, was more of a curio, as most Scotch drinkers bought blended whiskies. Grant’s son-in-law - Charles Gordon - also pursued and endured the sort of business trips that the Champenois had used to such clever effect in the mid century. Gordon travelled as far and wide as Australia and New Zealand to spread the word. Gordon had earlier shown the sort of perseverance that Robert the Bruce had once admired in a little spider… Having made 180 visiting calls to various grocers and liquor establishments, Gordon had not sold one bottle. So at the 181st visit he dropped off a small sample bottle. Shortly thereafter he made his first sale. Turnover in 2018 was one billion pounds. Brands within the portfolio, to name a few, are Tullamore, Hendrik’s Gin, Drambuie, and the USA craft distiller Tuthilltown Spirits. Glenfiddich and The Balvenie are also still family owned, and were the principal drivers of growth in 2018.

GLENLIVET

Speyside.1824. George Smith had an eclectic CV, which may very well have seen him operating illegal stills. Yet with the 1823 Excise Act regulation and distilling became easier, and George Smith established Glenlivet. That he may have operated an illegal still for the 4th Earl of Gordon, who helped to pass the Act, may or may not have had something to do with him being granted a distiller’s licence…

Glenlivet had some advantages. It was built near natural springs; it had good, local maltings, and it had rather unique, tall, long-necked stills, which gave the whiskey - as it does to this day - a lighter and more elegant texture. Glenlivet moved from strength to strength under family ownership, to such a degree that other Speyside whisky distillers started labelling their spirit “Glenlivet”, as if the name were a geographical indicator. The Second World War took a direct toll on Glenlivet, however, and the distillery was forced to shut down - by government decree. The war effort needed less whisky. But immediately thereafter Glenlivet sprang back to life, with the post WWII American market demanding more and more single malt, and Glenlivet refiring the stills in order to meet demand. This time the government came to the party, disobserving post-war UK grain rationing so that Glenlivet could produce whisky. It’s no wonder that Glenlivet is the biggest selling single malt in America still to this day, and the second biggest in the world.

GLEN GRANT

An 1840 distillery - also Speyside - and also established and driven by the energy of a couple of off-the-radar illegal distillers. John and James Grant. A distillery licence they must have seen as a better way to make a living outside of smuggling. It was John’s son, “The Major”, as he liked to refer to himself as, who was the man who modernised and revolutionised the distillery, however. Born to the business and the strange alchemy that it distilling, he introduced, in the 1870s, purifiers and filtration systems to the finished whisky, in order to give it a clear, bright appearance. He was an early adopter in many ways - putting electricity into the distillery before it was in homes; and he’s reputed to be the first man to import a motor car into Scotland… Glen Grant and Glenlivet eventually found a meeting of business minds; they amalgamated in 1972, with family interests on both sides maintained. Since that time, and through various corporate manoeuvres and acquisitions by such powerhouses as Allied Domecq, Suntory, Courage Brewing, and Pernod Ricard, it is rather sentimental to think that today both whiskies have found their own individual feet again, if not as family-owned businesses, but as original, authentic whisky brands. Ownership can change and wax and wane, but the history doesn’t disappear. And Glen Grant remains one of the world’s biggest selling single malts to this day.

It is easy to see why there has been a return and a refocus on the familial history of many whisky brands. In a drinking market where emerging demographics want real stories about real people - as opposed to ads with celebrities and muzak and Lake Como in the background - a sense of legacy and of inheritance and of something more substantial helps things ring true. Wine merchants, such as Berry Brothers & Rudd, in St James’s Street London, have utilized such history well, dating back to 1698. Customers like Lord Byron; establishing brands like Cutty Sark, and introducing the concept of “vintage” whiskey via Glenrothes Single Malt. If a vintage works for wine, why not whisky… The Morrison Family - former owners of Bowmore - have recently returned to the game with Aberargie. They even grow their own barley on their own farm, taking whisky back to the very land itself. And a former bottling and blending company, Douglas Laing & Co, have headed in the other direction, so to speak, concentrating on not just single malts, but single cask whiskies, with third-generation Cara Laing telling the story - through whisky - of not just one malt, but one cask. Unique, and once it’s gone, unprocurable. Talk about the Angel’s Share...