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Glenrothes
Founded
1879
Region
Speyside
Status
Operational
Company
Production type
Single Malt
Production capacity
5,600,000
Not to be confused with the Fife town of the same name, the Glenrothes distillery is located in Rothes in Speyside and was built by James Stuart & Co in 1878. It opened the following year and eventually was involved in the merger that created Highland Distillers in 1887. It is today part of the Edrington Group following its acquisition of Highland Distillers in 1999.
Earmarked from an early stage as an ideal component in blended Scotch whiskies, Glenrothes has long been a key component in the recipes of brands such as Cutty Sark and The Famous Grouse. Its single malt brand has also risen to prominence over recent decades.
Despite its importance to its blends, Highland Distillers also saw value in bottling Glenrothes single malt and began doing so in the early 1960s. At this time the company was using the same generic branding with arched text and encircled age statements for Highland Park and Tamdhu bottlings as well. That label style was then licensed to the independent bottler, Gordon & MacPhail, in the 1980s and a new official Glenrothes brand was subsequently assigned to the London wine merchant, Berry Brothers & Rudd (BBR).
Launched in 1987, the core range expression was a 12-year-old however it was only available for six years before the brand was relaunched again, now with its trademark round bottle shape. The other significant change to the range was the replacement of the 12-year-old with a selection of rolling vintage releases, the first of which was 1979. This remained in practice until 2017, during which period the brand (but not the distillery) was sold to Berry Brothers & Rudd by the Edrington Group in 2010 in exchange for the Cutty Sark blend.
Edrington were in a hurry to develop Glenrothes as an international brand however, purchasing it back in 2017 and relaunching it the following year. Returning to age statement bottlings, its portfolio was known as the Soleo Collection and included a 10-, 12-, 18- and 25-year-old alongside the non-age statement Whisky Maker's Cut. These have all since been discontinued apart from the 18-year-old which is considered the current proprietary release.
1999-present
2010-2017 (brand only)
1887-1999
Glenrothes Distillery
Rothes
Aberlour
AB38 7AA
Scotland
Active brands
Single Malt
