GLENMORANGIE DISTILLERY 21yo 1977

Situated next to the Dornoch Firth in a series of handsome red sandstone buildings, the Glenmorangie distillery started life as the local brewery for the town of Tain. In 1843, William Matheson converted it to a distillery and it remained in the family until 1887, when it was sold to the Glenmorangie Distillery Co, co-owned by the Maitland brothers and Duncan Cameron.

After the First World War, the business was sold to a partnership between two blending and broking firms, Macdonald & Muir and Durham & Co, soon passing entirely to the former, which used the whisky for blends such as Highland Queen. Although it was bottled in small quantities from the 1920s, a change of strategy in 1959 saw Glenmorangie revived as a single malt that soon became Scotland’s biggest seller.

This was not the first time that this had happened, however. Records show that at the end of the 19th century Glenmorangie was being sold at The Savoy and other top-end London hotels, as well as being exported.

Early success in the infant single malt category resulted in two more stills being added to the original pair in 1976, a number which was doubled again in 1990. In 2009, four more were added, along with a larger mash tun and extra washbacks.

Five years previously, French luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) had bought the firm (also including Ardbeg) for £300m. More recently, extra warehousing has been built, the result of a decision to mature and vat all the production on-site.

In January 2018, it was announced that a new stillhouse would be built, housing two more of Glenmorangie’s distinctive, long-necked stills, plus a new mash tun and washbacks. The new facility will enable more experimental runs, with indications that innovations such as the use of stainless steel condensers will be explored.