William Grant & Sons established its Girvan distillery following a peculiar dispute with DCL. The story goes that Grant’s planned a TV ad for its Standfast brand, which DCL found distasteful and responded by threatening to cut off Grant’s grain whisky supply.
This posed a significant threat to Standfast’s success, so the Grant family did what they had done in the past: they quickly built a new distillery from the ground up. Girvan, located on the Clyde coast, was chosen for its large site and the support from the local council for major investments in the area.
In 1963, under the direction of Charles Grant Gordon, the distillery was constructed, commissioned, and started production within just nine months. In a nod to his great-grandfather William Grant at Glenfiddich, the first spirit was produced on Christmas Day. The dispute over grain whisky also coincided with the launch of Glenfiddich Pure Malt in the same year.
Girvan continues to supply grain whisky for Grant’s own products and other blenders. In 1985, William Grant & Sons introduced Black Barrel single grain whisky, but it was discontinued. A re-launch occurred in 2014 with a new range under the name Girvan Patent Still, featuring different age statements.
In 1995, the original Coffey stills were replaced with a new multiple-column vacuum still setup. The Girvan site also housed the Ladyburn malt whisky distillery, which operated from 1965 to 1975. Today, it is home to the Hendrick’s gin distillery and the Ailsa Bay malt distillery.
