Family touch behind the world's top malt whisky

better ambassadors in this latter part of the century.

Yet, curiously, for all the popularity of Scotch whisky around the

globe, the purity of the single malt was scarcely known outside our own

Scottish boundary 25 years ago.

Indeed, it was largely regarded as the acquired taste of connoisseurs

in the local areas where it was made.

Much of the credit for promoting it from being an ingredient of the

popular blends to a speciality in its own right goes to the makers of

Glenfiddich, who began to push the matter in 1963.

Their reward was to follow. Glenfiddich stands today as the world's

biggest-selling malt whisky, representing not much short of every second

bottle of malt we buy.

One of the most delightful aspects of this international story is the

fact that, in an age of mergers and conglomerates, Glenfiddich is owned

entirely by the same family of Grants who started it in the hills of

Banffshire just over 100 years ago.

The present chairman is a civilised man called Sandy Grant Gordon who,

by an unusual closeness of breeding, is the great-grandson of the

founder twice over -- through both his father and his mother, who were

cousins.

At his desk in West George Street, Glasgow, he sweeps a hand towards a

map of the calf country, near Dufftown, and recalls the story of the

founding William Grant, a classic example of those Victorian Scots whose

energy and achievements leave us breathless even now.

The son of a Waterloo veteran, William Grant was herding cattle by the

age of seven before he became apprenticed as a shoemaker in his native

Dufftown. Soon tumbling to the fact that there were an awful lot of

cobblers in one small town, he found a job with the local Mortlach

Distillery, where he worked his way up to manager.

Having saved his money, he decided to build his own distillery, but

without the kind of encouragement which the Chancellor of the Exchequer

hands out to small businessmen today.

At least William Grant had a ready-made labour force -- a family of

seven sons and two daughters. Six of those sons graduated to become

doctors or schoolmasters but there was a ready response to father's call

to come home and help him physically build his distillery, stone by

stone.

On Christmas Day of 1887, the Grants of Dufftown distilled their first

drop of festive cheer, at the beginning of a remarkable family tale.

Glenfiddich was on its way.

Five years later, he built a second distillery at nearby Balvenie and

before the end of the century, he had moved into blending, with the

well-known name of Grant's Stand Fast (the family motto).

As the family tree spread its branches in a mixture of business and

professional directions, a succession of sons and grandsons became

chairmen to follow the founder, who became known as the Major (from his

Territorial affiliations) and died in 1923.

While the distilling and bottling of Glenfiddich remains at Dufftown,

the selling base of the company moved to Glasgow at the beginning of the

century and it was in Bearsden that the present chairman grew up.

The academic leanings of the family persisted and Sandy Grant Gordon,

born in 1931, pursued a course through Rugby and Cambridge to a

double-first in maths and law.

The early death of his father brought him home in 1954 and, today, he

heads a family company which includes his 87-year-old uncle, Gordon,

still on the board after 67 years with William Grant & Sons.

Sandy Grant Gordon spent five years looking after the African market

before turning his attention to the developing scene in Europe.

In 1963, the company built what was then the most sophisticated grain

distillery in Europe -- at Girvan. Not much is said about the reason

behind it but the Grants had been at odds with the Scotch Whisky

Association over the industry's attitude to the new-fangled television

advertising.

Their TV ads, involving Sir Compton Mackenzie, were quietly shelved.

But, to give themselves more independence in the raw materials of

whisky, they built their own grain distillery at Girvan, where the

Grant's blend is produced today.

Meanwhile, the triangular bottle was becoming a feature and the

Glenfiddich itself was pushing beyond local boundaries.

''Virtually no malt whisky went outside Scotland until the early

1960s,'' says the chairman. ''Bottled malt had normally been drunk in

the north and north-east, where they felt it was just a local taste.

Today, it is distributed worldwide and, while it still represents only

3% of the total volume of Scotch whisky, its value is much higher.''

With commendable foresight, Grant's had also bought themselves a

subsidiary in America, where they produce another brand name.

So what is the outlook in an industry which has been through a lean

spell?

''It is now in a more optimistic mood,'' says Sandy Grant Gordon.

''From 1980, things declined for several years. There was the problem of

falling sales in the industry and, because of surplus stocks, a dramatic

drop in prices.

''The industry made its cut-backs. We were one of the few companies

which managed to come through the difficult spell without enforced

redundancies. We used our spare people in making some of our own

packaging material, for example.

''Last year our exports went up by 20% and the outlook in the industry

is cautiously optimistic. Stocks are back in balance once more.''

The whisky people wanted a tax on replacement grain, instead of the

present system, but if the Chancellor's Budget did not oblige, they are

at least relieved that he did not add further penalty to the spirit.

William Grant & Sons are forging ahead, with a turnover (excluding

duty) in excess of #100m, giving work to 836 people.

The equity of the company remains entirely in family hands, though

they are currently in the process of trimming down the number of family

shareholders from around 60 to under 20.

Sandy Grant Gordon has two of his own four children in the business

and two of his nephews. So there is continuity and a strong sense of

belonging to that Banffshire valley up by Dufftown where it all began.

The malt is still produced and bottled there, while the blended

Grant's is bottled at Paisley.

The chairman pursues his own hobbies, from music to hill-walking and

bird-watching -- and has guided his company towards sponsorship of

activities like indoor hockey, piping and heavy events at Highland

Games. Ever mindful of the academic leanings, they back a Glenfiddich

fellowship in Scots history at St Andrews University.

They have come a long way from the Major and his first distillery at

Dufftown, a building which is retained even today as a centre for the

tens of thousands of visitors who call each year at the home of the

famous Glenfiddich.