The Famous Grouse is a brand of

blended A blend is a mixture of two or more different things or substances; e.g., a product of a mixer or blender. Blend Blend may also refer to: * Blend word, a word formed from parts of other words * ''Blend'' (album), a 1996 album by BoDeans * Bl ...

Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial distil ...

, first produced by Matthew Gloag & Son in 1896, and currently produced and owned by

The Edrington Group Edrington (legally The Edrington Group Ltd.) is a privately owned international spirits company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It produces Single malt Scotch, single malts The Macallan, Highland Park Single Malt, Highland Park, The Glenrothes dist ...

. The

single malt whiskies Single malt whisky is malt whisky from a single Distillation, distillery. Single malts are typically associated with single malt Scotch, though they are also produced in various other countries. Under the United Kingdom's Scotch Whisky Regul ...

used in The Famous Grouse blend include the Edrington-owned Highland Park and

The Macallan The Macallan distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Craigellachie, Moray, Scotland. The Macallan Distillers Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Edrington, which purchased the brand from Highland Distillers in 1999.English, Shi ...

. Its emblem is the

red grouse The red grouse (''Lagopus lagopus scotica'') is a medium-sized bird of the grouse family which is found in heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It is usually classified as a subspecies of the willow ptarmigan but is sometimes consider ...

, Scotland's national game bird. It has been the highest-selling whisky brand in Scotland since 1980. As a standard price blended Scotch whisky, its main competitors in its home market are Bell's, Teacher's and Grant's. The majority of its sales in the United Kingdom are during the Christmas period.

History

Matthew Gloag was a

grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food preservation, packaged ...

and wine

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

at 22 Atholl Street,

Perth, Scotland Perth (Scottish English, locally: ; gd, Peairt ) is a city in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population o ...

. Gloag originally specialised on imported wines and ports from France, Spain and Portugal. When Queen Victoria visited Perth in 1842, he was invited to supply the wines for the royal

banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

. In 1860, his son, William Gloag, took over the company. Following the

Great French Wine Blight The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the Atl ...

the company began to look at creating its own

blended whiskies A blended whiskey (or blended whisky) is the product of blending different types of whiskeys and sometimes also neutral grain spirits, colorings, and flavorings. It is generally the product of mixing one or more higher-quality straight or singl ...

around 1875. In 1896, William's nephew, Matthew Gloag (1850-1912), took over the family business. He created a new blended brand called The Grouse in 1896. at this time the company was still operating from the grandfather's premises but had expanded to occupy adjacent shops, jointly covering 20 to 26 Atholl Street. In 1905 the limited company of ''Matthew Gloag & son'' was formed and the Grouse was renamed The Famous Grouse in the same year. Matthew Gloag's daughter Phillippa first designed the label's grouse icon. Only at this point did the company move to new purpose-built premises on Kinnoull Street. In 1970, Matthew Gloag & Son, owned by the Gloag family, was sold to

Highland Distillers Highland Distillers was founded in 1887 by the Robertson family. In 1970 Highland purchased Matthew Gloag & Son, producers of the Famous Grouse blended whisky and acquired The Macallan single malt Scotch producers in Speyside, in 1996. Highland a ...

, after the death of the chairman, Matthew Frederick Gloag. The marketing and distributive power of the company saw Famous Grouse become the highest selling Scotch in Scotland by 1980 and the second highest selling in the United Kingdom. From the 1980s the brand began to be exported overseas, where it now sells over 2 million cases annually. In 1984 The Famous Grouse was awarded the

Royal Warrant A royal warrant is a document issued by a monarch which confers rights or privileges on the recipient, or has the effect of law. Royal warrant may refer to: * Royal warrant of appointment, warrant to tradespeople who supply goods or services to a r ...

Characteristics

The standard blend is 40% ABV. The blend goes through a marrying process for up to six months at 46% ABV. It is known that in order to call a whisky "Blended Scotch", the youngest malt in the blend needs to be matured for at least three years. However, they do not state how old the youngest malt in their blend is. Rather, they optimize the standard taste by blending casks of varying ages among batches. The aging is done in oak casks.

Variants

left, A bottle of Black Grouse In 2007 a peated special version of The Famous Grouse called ''The Black Grouse'' developed for the Swedish market was released. The packaging displays a black grouse in place of the usual red grouse. The following year a special version, meant for chilling, was released called ''The Snow Grouse''. The packaging features a ptarmigan. In 2011, ''The Naked Grouse'' was launched as its premium product. Initially as a high-end blended whisky, in 2017 it was turned into blended malt whisky.

Promotions and sponsorships

The Famous Grouse has focussed its television advertising around the Christmas period since 1996. The Famous Grouse was the primary sponsor of the Perth-based

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

between 1986 and 1989 and again between 1991 and 1998. It also sponsored the Scotland national rugby union team from 1990 until 2007, and was 'The Official Spirit of Scottish Rugby' from 2013 for three years. In May 2014, The Famous Grouse was named the official whisky of the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

in Glasgow.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Famous Grouse, The 1896 establishments in Scotland Products introduced in 1896 Scottish brands Blended Scotch whisky