Glenfoyle

Glenfoyle History

Glenfoyle was one of the blended Scotch whisky brands produced by Longman Distillers, a subsidiary of Invergordon Distillers, which handled the group’s export business since its creation in 1960.

It was named after a distillery near Gargunnock that closed in 1923 when under the ownership of John Dewar & Sons Ltd. The site was later acquired by Glasgow blender Brodie Hepburn Ltd, which used it as a warehousing facility for the output from Tullibardine distillery, some 20 miles distant, which Hepburn had reopened in 1953.

In 1971 both sites were sold to Invergordon Distillers, which subsequently introduced Glenfoyle Reserve, a premium blended whisky under licence from Tamnavulin-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd to sell abroad.

The late 1980s saw the launch of Glenfoyle as an 8-year-old vatted malt licensed to Invergordon Distillers’ newly acquired subsidiary Ewen & Co., for sale in France.

Soon after its release distiller and blender Whyte & Mackay made a hostile takeover bid for Invergordon, eventually taking over its distilleries and brands in 1993.

By the late 1990s and early ‘00s, Glenfoyle began to emerge as a single malt, this time bottled under Invergordon subsidiary Longman Distillers. The liquid was obviously not sourced from Glenfoyle distillery, which had closed 70 years prior, and was most likely to be malt from Tamnavulin or Dalmore, distilleries that belonged to Invergordon’s new owner Whyte & Mackay.