Glenfiddich: The Valley of The Deer

Photo via GreePX

Two weeks ago, I was at a function somewhere in Lagos, my second since the lifting of the lockdown. Queer me. At my table was a 70ish looking elderly man who watched me as I was reading the pack of the Jameson Irish Whiskey set before us, our eyes met, he smiled.

He evidently is a connoisseur of good whiskey, and he regaled me with rich experiences from his bottlescapades. I told him I love great Coffee, but always fascinated by companies that have stood the test of time, like the Jameson Whiskey (240 years old).

It also helps me understand the socioeconomic evolution of societies to appreciate where we presently stand in history.

How John Jameson left his legal professions and dabbled into distilling, and how he had to marry the daughter of John Haig, the famous Scottish distiller as a hedge to protect his fledgling distillery.

Family was the bedrock of successful businesses, and the more the better, even our grandparents thought sotoo. Jameson's wife had 16 children, eight sons and eight daughters, and they all had ‘distilling skills’ running in their DNA, they ended up creating the most popular Irish Whiskey in the world.

Jameson Whiskey is the best selling Irish whiskey in the world, and the brand has been in that position since about 1805, according to Frommer's 500 Places for Food & Wine Lovers. Imagine maintaining the first position on something for 215 years running…….little wonder the Jameson’s family motto is Sine Metu.

He told me he loves Glenfiddich…seem everybody loves it.

Unarguably the best selling and most popular single malt whisky in the world, selling in 180 countries, and if you paid closer attention, you’d notice that the spelling changed to whisky, instead of “whiskey” when I writing about Jameson, reason being that Irish and Scottish has different spelling, and because of the influence of the Irish on American English, Americans spell “Whiskey”.

 The Glenfiddich Solera Reserve 15-year single malt scotch whisky.

While discussing with my elderly friend, I tried to help him with the right way to pronounce Glenfiddich to no avail, we gave up because he warned that worrying over the pronunciation may affect our taste bud, and ruin the enjoyment. I reasoned with him.

Wetin we gain if we mess our taste bud. Be that as it may, I am of the persuasion that close to 80% of those who love and enjoy Glenfiddich and swear by it, do not know how to pronounce the name.

This is because the “kh” ending sound from Scottish Gaelic is closer to the German “ich” sound than anything in English. In fact, there is no sound like that in the English Language. If you ever entered a class in basic German, then this will be bread for you.

The name Glenfiddich means "valley of the deer" in Scottish Gaelic, which is why the Glenfiddich logo is a Stag because Dufftown, Scotland is in the Glen of the River Fiddich. The River Fiddich is a right bank tributary of the River Spey in northeast Scotland. It rises on the eastern slopes of Corriehabbie Hill in Glenfiddich Forest.

In 1886, with his seven sons and two daughters by his side, William set out to fulfil a lifelong ambition. Together they began building his Distillery by hand, stone by stone. After a year of toil and sweat, the first brew flowed on December 25, 1887, and William named it Glenfiddich, Gaelic for Valley of the Deer.

Logo of Glenfiddich

In 1961, the company came up with a specially blended whisky with water, air and malted barley and the state of that special blend inspired the influential 20th century designer Hans Schleger to create, the triangular bottle which was a radical design of the time.

But the company took the world by storm in 1991 by creating the first ever vatting of The Glenfiddich 50 Year Old which was married to perfection from nine casks laid down in the 1930s to honour each of the founder’s children who helped to build the first distillery.

Glenfiddich 50 year old | image via glenfiddich.com

I have noticed the role of adversity and downtimes in inspiring great innovation, and no other sector has this manifested as in winery and distillery. Remember the story of the Jameson Distilleries and the Great Dublin Fire that destroyed most of their premises.

Glenfiddich had a similar experience, but this time, it was extreme snow that led to the collapse of their warehouse roofs exposing precious, maturing casks to the winter sky which pushed workers to work round the clock in -19°C to save every one. And as a tribute, the company’s Malt Master created the Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix by marrying the finest of the rescued casks to create limited edition single malt, born out of chance and adversity.

Glenfiddich is currently managed by the fifth generation of William Grant's descendants.

Written by Kelechi Deca