5 Comments

I find it interesting that William Grants are lumped in with the multi-national giants yet they are still a family owned and controlled Scottish company with only two Scottish distilling sites, Dufftown where they have 3 distilleries and own 1800 acres of land and Girvan where they have the giant grain distillery. They may not be true field to bottle but are very much tied to the land on which the distilleries stand and the communities in which the employees live.

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I'm not sure they were lumped in, so much as cited as evidence of a Scotch oligopoly. I certainly wouldn't group Wm Grant or Edrington alongside Diageo or Pernod Ricard if I had more words to explore the nuances, but they are certainly more similar to each other than to the smaller independent distilleries. Glenfiddich alone has a 21000000 LPA capacity (the second highest of any single malt distillery), so definitely falls into the Scotch industrial camp.

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Abhainn Dearg receives an honorable mention in the article but not the afterward. Why the exclusion?

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Hey Nathan. Simply because I've not had a chance to try their whisky yet, but I'd love to. I also tried to only include drams that are readily available for all to buy. You can buy Abhainn Dearg direct from the website though!

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That makes sense. I really enjoyed your article. And Abhainn Dearg is worth seeking out. I don't know how they will do making a splash in the "industrial complex" but the juice itself is very unique and delicious.

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