We are Whisky Family!

Besides the best-selling Single Malt brand Glenfiddich, the Grant family also owns brands such as Tullamore D.E.W. or Hendrick's Gin. Their success story began as early as 1887, when the first spirit ran through the stills at Glenfiddich distillery - William Grant had built it himself with his nine children. Just five years later, the family opened their second distillery: Balvenie. Over the decades, more and more distilleries and brands were added to the Grant family's portfolio, including Girvan, Hendrick's, Ailsa Bay, Drambuie and Monkey Shoulder in addition to their own brand Grant's. The company has been firmly in the hands of the Grant family for six generations, the current chairman being William Grant's great-great-grandson Glenn Gordon.

John Walker & Sons concentrate entirely on Blends and Blended Malts. The story of what is probably Scotland's best-known Whisky brand began as early as 1819, when John Walker started blending Single Malt Whiskies of very different quality according to his personal taste. He obviously hit a nerve with his taste, because business with the Blends went so well that his son Alexander even sold them internationally, where they were very well received. This was the start of Johnnie Walker's success. Although the brand now belongs to the multinational beverage company Diageo, the Walkers are probably the best-known Whisky family in the world.

Another Scotsman who made common cause with his sons is John Dewar. In 1846, he founded the company John Dewar and Sons together with his sons Tommy and John Alexander. They are not only producers of Dewar's Blended Whiskies, but also owners of the distilleries Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie and Royal Brackla. In addition, the brand The Deveron, which is produced at Macduff distillery, is also part of the family business' portfolio.

Independent bottling of Whisky is often a family affair - at least in Scotland. The Urquhart family, for example, has been trading the finest bottlings of Scotch Whisky from their headquarters in Elgin for four generations. John Urquhart was one of the first employees of the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, founded in 1895, and took over after the death of the two founders James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail. Over the years, new generations of Urquharts and their descendants became employees of the company. So the clan has been shaping events at the independent bottler for 4 generations and over 100 years. The Laing family is also an old hand in the business. Fred Douglas Laing founded his independent bottling company Douglas Laing in 1948. For a long time, the family members worked together on the selection and bottling of Whiskies, until Stewart Hunter Laing went his own way in 2013 and parted company with his brother Fred Jr. Now the two brothers run their companies Douglas Laing and Hunter Laing and enrich the Scotch Whisky scene with special independent bottlings. The London-based company Berry Bros. & Rudd has been in business even longer. Here the company name already suggests they are family. In fact, however, the Berry Brothers, George and Henry, were not the founders of the company. A widow named Elisabeth Bourne opened a small shop and started trading in groceries and delicacies as early as the end of the 17th century. A few generations later, the two namesakes also started trading in spirits and bottling Whisky. And in 1845, the independent bottler was born. The second part of the name pays credit to Hugh Rudd, a wine merchant who became part of the team in 1920. A younger company, yet firmly in family hands, is the independent bottler Wemyss Malts. Under the family of the same name’s management, Malts have been bottled individually and also blended in Fife, Scotland, since 2005. All of the four families have acquired distilleries in addition to their portfolio of independent bottlings. The Wemyss family built the Lowland distillery Kingsbarns in 2014, the Urquhart family bought Benromach distillery in 1993 and Hunter Laing also built their own distillery on the Isle of Islay. At the moment, the first Whisky is still sleeping in casks, waiting patiently to be bottled.

Whiskey is a family affair - that people in Ireland and the USA seem to be convinced of, too. The famous Irish Whiskey Jameson comes from a long line of John Jamesons, who have handed over the sceptre to the next John over the years. In third generation, the company formally became John Jameson & Son Limited. Over the decades, the company became increasingly influential and the family evolved into the most important Whiskey distillers in Ireland. International success was not long in coming: nowadays, Jameson is an essential part of any pub. The Midleton distillery near Cork, home of Jameson, now produces a variety of other Irish Whiskey brands, including Powers, Redbreast, Writer's Tears or The Irishman - the list is long. The US Whiskey Jim Beam has a similarly long family history: The current Master Distiller Fred Noe is the seventh generation of Whiskey makers to run the family distillery in Kentucky. James Beauregard aka Jim Beam was the inventor of the brand and great-great-great-great-grandfather of Fred Noe, who joined the Kentucky distillery shortly before Prohibition in 1920.

You see: Whisky is a family affair! We see it that way, too, and so Whisky.com is already run by the second generation. Here's to the next 5!