Girvan Distillery: A single grain pioneer
With characteristic industrial zeal, Girvan Distillery has wasted no time in establishing itself as a pioneer of the single grain Scotch category.
Girvan is deemed a pioneer in single grain Scotch**This feature was first published in the March 2016 edition of The Spirits Business
‘Pioneering’ is a word bandied around somewhat liberally in Scotch whisky, but rightly applies to William Grant & Sons’ vast Girvan Distillery. Despite being much younger than most distilleries in Scotland, the site has achieved much in its short history, taking experimental strides in production and championing the emergence of the single grain Scotch whisky category.
The distillery sits on a sprawling estate in the Scottish Lowlands and features five stills, affectionately known as ‘Apps’, meaning ‘apparatus’. With 53 warehouses that are believed to cumulatively contain 10% of all Scotland’s whisky, and with capacity to produce 110 million litres of alcohol a year, Girvan lacks the romantic sentiment attached to other distilleries. But the virtues of this industrial operation run much deeper than mere aesthetics.
Its genesis lies, funnily enough, in a struggle faced by one of William Grant’s blended whisky brands. In 1956, the company launched its “iconic” triangular bottle for Grant’s Family Reserve Blended Scotch. However, according to Peter Gordon, director at William Grant & Sons and great-great-grandson of company founder William Grant, while the bottle has now become synonymous with the Grant’s brand, it was not initially well-received by key drinkers in the shipyards of Glasgow and Liverpool. The company, therefore, announced plans to create a television advertising campaign for Grant’s, breaking a gentlemen’s agreement in the industry not to promote spirits in this way.
Distillers Company Limited, which later became Diageo, subsequently threatened to cut off William Grant’s supply of grain whisky. “This forced our hand somewhat,” Gordon quips. In April 1963, construction of Girvan Distillery started under the guidance of Gordon’s uncle, Charles Grant Gordon, the late life president of William Grant & Sons. Famously, work was completed in just eight months, and Girvan’s first distillation run took place on Christmas Day 1963 – 76 years to the day after the family’s first distillery, Glenfiddich, began production.
Building the Girvan distillery‘A brilliant chapter’
“If there’s one thing you should never have done, it’s threaten Mr Charles,” says Jonathan Cornthwaite, senior brand manager, esoteric whisky, at William Grant & Sons. “This is a brilliant chapter in the story of William Grant and is one example of the bold approaches the company has taken.”
Gordon was committed to seeing through the swift build of Girvan, even living in a caravan on the site for extended periods of time throughout 1963. His bicycle was a regular fixture at the distillery as he pedalled from place to place to help the project take shape. Rumour had it that more than 1,500 bottles of whisky were distributed to help incentivise the builders to meet their deadlines.
Touted as the “most advanced distillery in the world” at the time of its launch, Girvan has undergone multiple expansions over the years. The original Girvan Patent Still, or No. 1 Apps, was joined by four other incarnations in the years that followed. The No. 4 Apps pioneered the ‘vacuum distillation’ method, which depends on temperature differentiation.
“No.4 is the most exciting of all the Apps because it creates multi-pressure distilled whisky,” says Cornthwaite. “It allows us to distill at a low pressure, which gives a lighter, cleaner spirit.”
Scotch’s ‘third leg’
Despite the numerous developments, and indeed extensive investment, at Girvan, its role as the bulk liquid provider for William Grant’s blends, and the blends of other distilleries, meant it has largely remained in the shadows of malt giants. However, in late 2013, William Grant announced exciting plans to champion single grain as the “third leg of the Scotch whisky category”. Over the coming months, the company released three standalone bottlings from Girvan: Girvan Patent Still 25 Year Old, Girvan Patent Still 30 Year Old, and Girvan Patent Still No 4 Apps.
While single grain Scotch emerged in the mid-20th century, no brand truly found its legs. Back in 2014, Kevin Abrook, global whisky specialist for innovation at William Grant, said of single grain whiskies released by independent bottlers: “We are in a much stronger position, obviously with our own distillery and whisky stocks, to drive the category.
“They can provide some esoteric releases, but they won’t have the continuity of supply or brand building experience that we have to create a new category.”
Of course, the launch of Diageo’s Haig Club – backed by David Beckham – cranked up the spotlight on single grain, but Girvan remains committed to exploring the potential of the sector, and innovating within it. Setting the Girvan range at super- and ultra-premium price points (£45-£375), William Grant is aiming to convert malt connoisseurs and believes it can make the whisky a million case-selling brand by 2063 – 50 years after its launch.
“Grain whisky has been playing a really important role in Scotch whisky for a long time – it makes up 70% of all Scotch consumed,” continues Cornthwaite. “But it’s not really been getting the credit it deserves so it was critical that we created a really great single grain whisky.”
William Grant will continue to expand Girvan by building a new “very efficient” still system with capacity to produce 10,500 litres an hour, at the same time decommissioning No. 1 Apps. The end of an era some might say, but a clear sign Girvan is looking confidently into the future.
