Glen Garioch has the distinction of being one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, dating back to 1797. The distillery has an eventful past, having survived over two centuries of change and development.
After the distillery’s founding by Alexander Manson in 1797, the distillery changed hands several times during the first half of the nineteenth century, until it was finally returned to the Manson family in 1837. It remained in the families’ hands until 1884, when it was sold to T.G. Thomson & Co of Leith. Two years later they were joined by William Sanderson, the owner of the self proclaimed “the largest distillery in the world”, North British. Sanderson was one of the most influential members of the Whisky trade, and in 1882 he launched the “VAT 69” blend, which Glen Garioch later became the heart of. A couple of years later, in 1886, Sanderson purchased a 50% interest in Glen Garioch. After Sanderson’s death in 1908, his son William Mark Sanderson took control of the operation of the distillery.
During the 1920s, as Prohibition drastically affected the international Whisky market, William Mark decided to buy the entirety of the shares of Glen Garioch to save it from amalgamation. Tragically, this did not improve the financial situation of the distillery, and William Mark died in 1929, at the very peak of the Great Depression. Four years later, in 1933, William Mar’s son, Kenneth, sold his family’s company to Booth Distilleries Ltd in a final attempt to avoid bankruptcy. Prohibition was repealed a mere eight months later.
In 1937, Scottish Malt Distillers, a subdivision of DCL, purchased Glen Garioch. Two years later, production had to be suspended due to the Second World War. After the war, production resumes and the distillery, although the second half of the 20th century brought it’s own fair amount of changes. In 1968, production was suspended again, due to what the management of the distillery described as “chronic water shortages”, forcing the distillery to alter its water source. In 1970, the distillery was sold to Stanley P Morrision, who undertook a series of major renovations at the site, which included Glen Garioch becoming the first distillery to gas fire its stills in 1972.
Today, Glen Garioch is operated by Morrison Bowmore Distillers, who are owned by the Japanese company Suntory.
