Tasting whisky with Grant's Master Blender

We are delighted to be able to offer you a new video that has recently been recorded for the famous William Grant & Sons whisky company. This is a further extension of the wonderful visit that we had earlier in the year to the company’s Ailsa Bay and Girvan distilleries in Ayrshire. Our host for that trip was Ludo Ducrocq, the Global Brand Ambassador for the Grant’s range of blended whiskies. In this video, Brian Kinsman – the Master Blender for William Grant & Sons explains about how to get the most out of your whisky tasting experience, using Grant's whisky as an example, including the topics of what type of whisky glass to use, nosing the whisky and adding water or ice to whisky.



The Grant's whisky range is amongst the best selling in the world. The main markets are the UK (where the brand stands in 4th place behind Bell's, Famous Grouse and High Commissioner), France (who are the world leaders in whisky consumption with a staggering 48 million litres each year) and South America (especially Ecuador and Venezuela). Sales in other growing markets such as eastern Europe, Taiwan and the travel retail/Duty Free sector are increasing rapidly. The Grant's brand sits comfortably in the world's top five for the sales of blended whisky and is predicted to shortly take third place for the first time (the other brands in the top five as of 2009 were Johnnie Walker, Ballantine's, J&B and Chivas Regal). Overall, the range sells a staggering 20 million bottles of whisky a year!

The current range of Grant's blended whiskies consist of the best selling Family Reserve, the Ale Cask and Sherry Cask which have been matured in ex-beer and ex-sherry casks respectively and three whiskies carrying an age statement – the 12, 18 and 25 year olds. For our full tasting notes and a comparison between each of the whiskies – click here.