Glenturret

The beginnings of the Glenturret whisky distillery are rather vague at best. The owners claim the distillery is one of Scotland’s oldest and it is certainly rumoured that distillation was carried out in the area during the early 18th century, this was, though, by... illicit means. It was in 1775, that the Hosh distillery was established by a group of smugglers. The buildings sit at the banks of the River Turret, not far from Crieff.

Today, the distillery is perhaps best known for its housing of the Famous Grouse Experience. The visitor centre is a top tourist draw and was installed in 2002, for the princely sum of £2.5 million. Famous Grouse is one of the world’s best-loved Scotch blends and Glenturret is said to be a component. In 1826, a distillery called Glenturret was established, though it closed a couple of decades later. It was in 1875, that the Hosh distillery adopted the name Glenturret, Thomas Stewart was the manager.

The whisky distillery was sadly closed for much of the early part of the 20th century. Following the acquisition by Mitchell Bros Ltd in 1903 the buildings were used as whisky storage. They deemed that whisky production would not be so lucrative. Mitchell Bros went into liquidation in 1929 and for some time the buildings were used for agricultural storage. Glenturret’s saviour arrived in 1957 in the form of James Fairlie who acquired the distillery and subsequently refurbished it.

Spirit ran from the stills once more in 1959 and, shortly after, the Glenturret distillery was acquired by Remy-Cointreau. Following purchase by Edrington and William Grant and Sons of previous owners, Highland distillers, the Glenturret distillery is under Edrington Group ownership. Glenturret holds its own place in the record books; The Guinness Book of World Records sites Towser, the now woefully deceased cat, as having caught more mice than any other; in her 23 years she is said to have caught 28,899 mice, the real question remains: who counted? There is but one official distillery bottling, though there are independent expressions.

Read more