Glenfarclas Donates to Moray Food Plus

Whilst this has been an unusual year for everyone, we are thrilled to be back welcoming visitors to our distillery with both tours and tastings. It has been great to have our distillery visits back up and running where we have been able to welcome visitors from all around the world. In accordance with government guidelines, we have enjoyed running our full tours.

The Glenfarclas team have continued their fundraising efforts for Moray Food Plus over the past six months with tour charges being replaced by donation requests following the reintroduction of distillery visits. It is safe to say that we could not have predicted the overwhelming response, support and generosity from our visitors. Distillery Manager Callum Fraser hosted a special manager’s tour for his birthday (which happened to be during the whisky festival) and all proceeds of this special tour went to Moray Food Plus as part of the donations. We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who visited for their contributions and we are very excited to announce that the grand total raised was an amazing £16,580.94. The cheque was presented to Mairi McCallum from Moray Food Plus by our Visitor Centre Manager Matthew Porritt on Wednesday 8th December. Overseeing the handover was Major General Seymour Monro (Lord-Lieutenant of Moray) and Patricia Seligman (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Banffshire). Proudly photographed at the cheque handover are Suzanne, Kirstin, Steve and Lauren who were all involved alongside Donna (not photographed) in persuading visitors to part with their cash for such a good cause. Despite the Covid-19 restrictions the Visitor Centre has had a fantastic season and we are looking forward to welcoming back guests to Glenfarclas in the New Year.

Since our reopening announcement we have had a very busy second half of the year and have been thrilled to be able to host and attend a number of events. In August we had an unexpected visit from some very special guests who were raising money for Police Care UK and The Fire Fighters Charity by walking over 600 miles from Gloucestershire to Elgin. The Glenfarclas team had a lot of fun welcoming William, Millie and Boo Boo and even got the chance to feed them some of our very own draff.

As per tradition Glenfarclas Distillery put forward its team for the Dramathon who ended up winning the We Dram relay. On behalf of Glenfarclas we would like to say a massive well done to both our team and those who participated in this annual event.

November was a very exciting month for us with the return of the rescheduled in-person Speyside Whisky Festival. As well as welcoming visitors to the distillery and attending tastings we were very excited to find out that we won overall best whisky at the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards from 2020 which was accepted by Callum at a launch event in October.

On the topic of awards, we are also thrilled to be able to announce that we also took away a bronze award from the Fields of Whisky Challenge which was accepted on behalf of Glenfarclas by our very own Deborah Stewart.

December has been a busy end to the year for us with our specially designed 1965 decanter and crystal tumblers which are housed in a beautiful rose wood box going to the Distillers One of One Auction. The auction was in aid of disadvantaged young people in Scotland and is led by The Worshipful Company of Distillers. This unique, one of kind whisky and decanter exceeded expectations and raised a total of £17,000.

We are also very excited to announce that our Chairman John Grant has been inducted into the Whisky Magazine’s Hall of Fame. This very prestigious honour was accepted by John himself at the award ceremony held in Edinburgh at the Balmoral Hotel. Please join us in congratulating him on his success.

As the year draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Mark, Scott and Niall, who are the three new faces that have joined the Glenfarclas team and will be involved in the production of our Glenfarclas spirit. Whilst we have made new and exciting changes our vision to produce traditional Highland Single Malt Whiskies remains the same. We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years from everyone here at Glenfarclas.

Introducing Mark who has joined us in the Mash House as an operator.

Please welcome Scott who has taken on the role of Bio plant operator.

And last but not least Niall, who is our newest Still House operator.