In 1886, founder William Grant set out to fulfill his lifelong dream of making “the best dram in the valley”—a Scottish term for a serving of whisky. To bring his vision to life, he, alongside his seven sons, two daughters and a single stone mason, hand built a distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, that Glenfiddich whisky is still produced in today.
Grant’s passionate, pioneering spirit has lived on. Even after 135 years, Glenfiddich is one of the few single malt distilleries that are still family-owned. For Grant, keeping the company in the family was critical not only to maintaining the integrity and quality of its products but also to align with the brand’s familial focus.
“Glenfiddich is not just a product—it’s a part of the family. The family’s name is on the bottle,” says Michael Giardina, Glenfiddich’s brand marketing director. “With a business that spans generations, you get this legacy, this heritage, this passing of knowledge and information over the decades that is invaluable.”
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The Glenfiddich distillery was built from 750,000 stones that were hand-laid by Grant and his family.
William Grant and his wife, Elizabeth.
When Glenfiddich launched, Grant risked his family savings to pursue a passion he had no confirmation would succeed. What he did have was belief in his own ability and a dogged determination to achieve his goal.
That bold spirit has carried on throughout Glenfiddich’s history. In 1963, for example, when no one believed it could be done, Glenfiddich became the first company to export single malt Scotch whisky outside Scotland (and brand it as such), laying the groundwork for what would become a global category. The company also kick-started the whisky tourism industry in Scotland when it became the first brand to open its distillery to visitors, all with the goal of building a strong community of whisky drinkers.
“Even though it’s over 130 years old, Glenfiddich is an innovative brand,” explains Giardina. “At its core, [the company] is continually pushing the boundaries and pushing the category into new frontiers.”
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Glenfiddich Is Over A Century Old And Still Family-Owned
The brand’s stag icon was originally inspired by its distillery, located in a valley where deer sightings are common, hence the meaning behind the brand’s Gaelic name, “valley of the deer.”
Over time, the stag has come to symbolize Glenfiddich’s ethos. The current logo was fashioned off a classic painting by Sir Edwin Landseer titled “The Monarch of the Glen,” which features a majestic stag looking off into the distance in the Scottish highlands.
“The stag embodies our brand values of looking to the future, pushing forward and having long-term vision,” adds Giardina.
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Even though it’d be more cost-effective to outsource, “the Grant family always prioritizes the quality of their whisky over making a little more profit,” says Giardina.
In keeping with that philosophy, the brand maintains an on-site cooperage (where whisky barrels are built), matures over 1 million casks on-site and has a live-in coppersmith—a rare, specialist craftsman—to build and tend to the brand’s uniquely shaped and sized copper stills. Glenfiddich also bottles at its distillery and uses a single source of water—the Robbie Dhu spring—at every stage of production to ensure the highest-quality whisky possible.
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Thanks to the brand’s pioneering spirit, Glenfiddich has more than 20 whiskies in its collection, each with a unique appeal.
“Glenfiddich has one of the most diverse ranges in the category, and if you look at how our whisky is produced from distillation to maturation to how it goes into the bottle, it is very much a handcrafted product,” adds Giardina. “A lot of the processes that were started back in William Grant’s day still exist. Our fermentation process is not run by a computer. It’s run by a chalkboard with people that are writing on that chalkboard and touching and feeling all aspects of the whisky.”
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All of Glenfiddich’s forward-thinking values have led the brand to reimagine what whisky can stand for. While in the past, whisky was often viewed as a status symbol, Glenfiddich hopes to position it as more of a purposeful product that transcends material values.
“As a leader in the category, we want to help challenge this idea of what it means to be rich and open up the conversation to a broader definition—[one focused on] how you feel, your values, the time you spend with your family and your community,” explains Giardina.
That mission underlies the brand’s newest initiative, The #Richest25, a list that spotlights high achievers—like those pictured, whose profiles you can read here—from across the U.S. who are broadening the definition of wealth by reimagining its true meaning. For Glenfiddich, which has long prioritized community, quality and innovation, it’s simply the latest step in setting a new standard.
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Kimi Werner
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George M. Johnson
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