(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Scotch Whisky Founders
Lowlands & Fife Regions
The Lowlands Region includes 23 of Scotland’s 32 Councils including the two largest Metropolitan Areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Below are links to Whisky Founders that have made huge contributions to the growth of the Lowlands and Fife Regions as well as the Scotch Whisky Industry in general. These may have been historical figures that lived long ago before prohibition or may be living leaders that have advanced the cause of the industry as a whole.
1
Raymond Armstrong
Raymond Armstrong’s “distillery rescue” narrative followed when spirit again flowed in December 2000; the first 8-Year-Old Single Malt became available in 2009. From there, the distillery was defined by careful, limited production and by the patience required for single malt to mature.
2
Arthur Bell
In 1851, Arthur Bell was offered a partnership in a newly-named firm which came to be known as Roy & Bell. That same year, Bell began to blend whiskies in pursuit of a more uniform product, one that would taste the same from bottle to bottle, not just from cask to cask; the point was consistency.
3
Friar John Cor
Friar Jon Cor, a member of the Cistercian abbey at Lindores in Fife, is the earliest known person recorded in history by name to have made Scotch whisky, appearing in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland in 1494. That royal record notes that he was issued eight bolls of malt “to make aqua vitae,” Latin for “water of life.”
4
Alistair Cunningham
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5
Francis Cuthbert
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6
William Fraser
William Fraser’s Brackla whisky gained national prominence. In 1833, Brackla became the first distillery ever granted a Royal Warrant, by order of King William IV, who was said to greatly appreciate the drink The distillery was promptly renamed Royal Brackla Distillery. It was soon promoted as “The King’s Own Whisky,”
7
Charles Grant Gordan
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8
John Haig
In 1824, John Haig made the defining decision of his career. He acquired and adapted the old Cameron Mills site beside the River Leven and founded Cameronbridge Distillery, establishing John Haig & Co. Cameronbridge quickly became one of the most significant industrial distilleries in Scotland.
9
Beaumont Hankey
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10
Brian Kinsman
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11
Tim Morrison
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12
Ian Palmer
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13
Drew McKenzie Smith
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14
David Thompson
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15
Andrew Usher, Jr.
In 1885, Andrew Usher, Jr., became one of the founders of the North British Distillery Company in Edinburgh, along with partners William Sanderson and John M. Crabbie. The goal of the partnership was to explicitly strengthen blender-controlled access to grain whisky, which was the backbone of most blends.
16
Alexander Walker
Alex Walker pushed the family’s whisky trade outward, and treated shipping not as a barrier but as a sales channel. One of his smartest decisions was packaging, because the container often decides whether the contents survive. In 1860, he introduced the square-sided bottle for Walker’s whisky.
17
John Walker
John Walker’s shop sold what a respectable customer might want at the table: groceries, specialty items, and drink, including whisky. Spirits, however, were not yet the neat, standardized product a modern drinker expects. Bottling at the source was not the norm, and quality could vary immensely from batch to batch
