The famous Glenfiddich distillery isn't just the birthplace of
the widest known 'brand' of single malt whisky. With an annual
production capacity of 10,000,000 litres they are 'the giant' of
the industry. The second largest distillery measured by volume
is Tomatin with (in 2006) some 7,000,000 litres per year.

The distillery is located in the busling town of Dufftown in the
heart of Banffshire. Other distilleries in the area are Balvenie
(also owned by William Grant & Sons), Convalmore, Dufftown,
Glendullan, Kininvie (the third distillery owned by W. Grant),
Mortlach and Pittyvaich. Wow... that town runs on whisky!

Glenfiddich was founded in 1886-1887 by the company / family that still owns it; William Grant & Sons. When they first started production at Glenfiddich they didn't use purpose built material; the old stills from Cardow distillery were considered good enough at the time.

By 1980 Glenfiddich had no less than 29 stills which didn't operate
in 'pairs' like at many other distilleries. At the time Glenfiddich ran
11 wash stills and 18 spirit stills, both gas and coal fired. If my data
is correct they have reduced the number of stills significantly since
then. Around 2000 they ran 5 wash stills and eight spirit stills.

In 1960 Glenfiddich released their single malt as an official bottling
for the first time (and probably the first distillery to actually do so).
This turned out to be a massive succes; in 1964 they sold around
4,000 cases but just a decade later (1974) the sales had already
grown to some 120,000 cases and Glenfiddich became a 'brand'.

Ah yes, my tasting notes....
Please check out my Track Record for a complete overview of all 'siplings' I've tried until the end of 2006.
 
 

Trivia about Glenfiddich:  There's LOTS to tell about Glenfiddich, but as you may have read in my Liquid Log I had to wrap up the old version of the website and build a brand new one instead. You'll be able to find more information about Glenfiddich on the new Malt Madness website eventually. Until then, here are just a few quick facts;

Apparently, Glenfiddich was the first distillery in Scotland to open a reception centre for the public.
At the time, they were also the only malt distillery with its own bottling plant, but by the time I write this
I know of at least one other distillery that has its own bottling plant as well: Bruichladdich on Islay.
Glenfiddich was also the first malt distillery to adopt the practice of 'continuous mashing'.