The Famous Grouse

By Miguel at 2011 Jan,05 in Featured , The Famous Grouse

The Famous Grouse is a brand of Scotch whisky that create blended malt and blended whisky. It has its spiritual home at the Glenturret distillery.

It was founded in 1897 by Matthew Gloag and Son and now owned by the Edrington Group. Gloag purchased whiskies from distilleries and created his own whisky blending them in Perth, Scotland.

In 1860, his son, William Gloag got the compan and start producing blended whiskies. His son, Matthew, created the Grouse brand in 1896.
In 1920 they established small overseas markets and in 1936 the brand built a bottling plant and a warehouse in Perth. It was not until 1960 that the Famous Grouse began to win support in Scotland becoming its best selling blended whisky brand since 1980.

In 1970 the brand was still owned by the Gloag family, but Matthew and his wife died and the family to avoid the big death duties sold the brand to Highland Distilleries, from where Gloag family bought many of its whiskies.

Highland Distilleries promoted the Famous Grouse under the direction of John Macphail, obtaining a big sales increases.

The blend is crafted with some of the best single malt whiskies such as Macallan and Highland Park.

Right now there are several expressions of the Famous Grouse and some of them special bottles for duty free or oversea markets:
Famous Grouse Blended Malt
Famous Grouse 12 years old Gold Reserve
Famous Grouse 15 years old
Famous Grouse 18 years old
Black Grouse
Snow Grouse

These are the bottles of The Famous Grouse that I own.