needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message william grant & sons ltd. is an independent family owned scottish company which distills scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits . it was established in 1887 1 by william grant and is now run by the descendants of the founder . it is the largest of the handful of scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership . william grant & sons is often abbreviated to w. grant & sons or just grant s after their blended whisky of the same name . the company is the third largest producer of scotch whisky 10.4 % market share after diageo 34.4 % and pernod ricard . the company s central headquarters are in strathclyde business park north lanarkshire . sales and marketing headquarters are in richmond london . the company is a member of the scotch whisky association . the master blender of grant s is brian kinsman who succeeded david stewart who had been in his post for 47 years the longest serving master blender with one distiller in the industry . in july 2014 it was reported that grant s donated in the region of 100 000 to the anti scottish independence campaign group better together with the company being said to have also donated smaller sums of money to other groups who are campaigning for a no vote ahead of the scottish independence referendum . 2 contents 1 awards 2 distilleries 3 history 4 brands 4.1 core brands 4.2 support brands 4.3 rare whiskies 4.4 highland distillers brands 4.5 other brands 5 references 6 external links 6.1 independent sites 6.2 brand websites 6.3 media coverage awards edit in 1974 william grant & sons won the queen s award to industry for outstanding export achievement the first scotch whisky company to receive this award . in 1999 william grant & sons received the drinks industry s top accolade distiller of the year from the international wine & spirit competition . in 2000 the company received the distiller of the year accolade for an unprecedented second year in a row . in 2001 the company received the international spirits challenge distiller of the year accolade . in 2003 glenfiddich 40 year old was acclaimed best of the best by industry bible whisky magazine after 75 experts in three different continents declared it to be the world s finest single malt . in 2004 william grant & sons won a record number of medals and seals of approval at the international spirits challenge one of the world s leading spirit competitions . the company won three gold medals nine silver ten bronze and seven seals of approval a total of 29 . the independent panel awarded the gold medals for the balvenie vintage cask 1972 the balvenie 30 year old and grant s rare old 18 year old . distilleries edit glenfiddich distillery b. 1887 balvenie distillery b. 1892 girvan grain distillery b. 1964 convalmore only the bonded warehouses to increase warehousing capacity for glenfiddich kininvie distillery 1990 2010 ailsa bay distillery b. 2007 history edit william grant was born in dufftown in 1839 . the young grant worked at mortlach distillery and dreamed of one day running his own distillery . he worked hard and saved and in 1886 grant and his nine children laid the first stone of the glenfiddich distillery . it was christmas day 1887 when the first spirit ran from the stills . in 1892 william grant & sons bought a second neighbouring distillery called balvenie . in 1898 the two distilleries started blending their whiskies and grant s whisky was born . william grant & sons pioneered single malt scotch whisky as until glenfiddich only blended brands were common . while on the one side very traditional the company has also been very innovative . the company was allegedly the first to market scotch whisky abroad this claim is very contentious there are several particularly glen grant and glenmorangie which would dispute it revolutionized bottle design in the 1950s creating a triangular bottle was the first to open up its distillery to visitors introduced the solera concept to glenfiddich to create glenfiddich solera reserve . in 1997 the grant entered into a joint venture with the robertson family see the edrington group creating a new company highland distillers . in may 2010 the group bought four brands from c & c group including tullamore dew for 300m . in september 2010 they sold the three minor brands irish mist carolans frangelico to gruppo campari for 129m euro so in effect grants paid 171m for the tullamore dew brand and its production facilities . the current chairman of william grant & sons is glenn gordon who has been since 2012 . brands edit the company s leading single malt scotch brand is glenfiddich the best selling brand in the worldwide single malt scotch market 700 000 cases year and 17.37 % market share . citation needed this is more than the sales of the next two single malts combined . citation needed their leading blended whisky grant s family reserve whisky has now recently timeframe been classed as the third best selling blended scotch whisky brand in the world after johnnie walker red label and ballantine s finest . citation needed core brands edit glenfiddich single malt scotch whisky grant s family reserve blended scotch whisky balvenie single malt scotch whisky hendrick s gin tullamore dew support brands edit reyka premium icelandic vodka sailor jerry spiced rum art in the age craft spirits old vatted demerara rum wood s 100 old navy rum vat 19 premium rum gibson s finest canadian whisky clan macgregor blended scotch whisky monkey shoulder triple malt whisky taboo mezcal montelobos milagro tequila solerno rare whiskies edit william grant & sons produces a number of rare whiskies most of which are described in the articles on glenfiddich grant s and balvenie . however their rare whiskies also include girvan first batch distillation from casks filled in 1964 ladyburn from ladyburn distillery closed in 1975 snow phoenix a one off by glenfiddich produced as a blend of all the whisky between three and 50 years in age recovered after a heavy snow destroyed a warehouse where the whisky was being aged other rare whiskies have been bottled as private vintages for concorde queen mary 2 and the royal danish wedding . highland distillers brands edit william grant & sons and the edrington group took highland distillers private in 1999 . 3 the famous grouse the macallan highland park black bottle gloag s london dry gin other brands edit virgin vodka grant s co developed this brand with richard bransons virgin group . the brand is now defunct . references edit official william grant website scottish independence distiller william grant and sons donates to better together . bbc news . bbc . 6 july 2014 . retrieved 6 july 2014 . https scotchwhisky.com whiskypedia whisky companies distillers blenders william grant sons external links edit william grant & sons official website . independent sites edit dr. whisky on william grant & sons brand websites edit william grant & sons ltd. corporate site william grant & sons usa . united states site glenfiddich website glenfiddich shop website glenfiddich gallery website grant s website balvenie website hendrick s gin website innis & gunn website polstar website sailor jerry website sailor jerry clothing website monkey shoulder website the knot s website reyka vodka s website milagro tequila website clan macgregor website tullamore dew website media coverage edit bbc news scotland rare whisky heads for hong kong ranked britain s 7th biggest middle market company bbc news scotland scottish independence distiller william grant and sons donates to better together retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title william grant % 26 sons & oldid 739214660 categories william grant & sons1886 establishments in scotlanddrink companies of the 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