The history of John Crabbie & Co dates all the way back to 1801, when Miller Crabbie settled in Edinburgh as a merchant. Although, it was only when his son John took over the company that they acquired a former brewery in Leith and expanded the whisky business. As well, they owned Haddington distillery in East Lothian, which produced grain whisky from 1852 until the mid-1860s, when it closed. They also became involved in fruit cordials, such as their famed Crabbie’s Green Ginger Wine. John Crabbie was one of the founders of The North British Distilling Company, too. A busy chap.
Around the 1970s, Crabbie’s whisky disappeared from shelves, with Crabbie’s Ginger Beer and Green Ginger Wine left holding down the fort. In 2002 the brand was sold on to Halewood International, based near Liverpool. In 2018, John Crabbie’s & Co. announced that it would be reentering the whisky world with a selection of bottlings of sourced whisky, as well as plans for its own distillery to be opened in Leith - the first cask was filled and laid down in December 2018.