Douglas Macniven & Company Profile

As a subsidiary of MacDonald & Muir (later renamed The Glenmorangie Company) Douglas Macniven produced several blended Scotch whisky brands, including Glen Niven, MacNiven’s Finest and Macniven’s Royal Abbey, as well as supermarket labels Glen Morven and Old Glenn.

Its most renowned bottling is the 80:20 accidental blended malt – the result of a bottling plant error that saw 21-year-old Glenmorangie mixed in with a much younger whisky – which was sold as an Oddbins exclusive in the late 1990s.

The incident foreshadowed a second, more notorious ‘mix up’ by Macdonald & Muir that resulted in the Ardbeg/ Glen Moray Serendipity bottling in 2006. 

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Douglas Macniven & Company History

Douglas Macniven was incorporated in December 1935 as a subsidiary of MacDonald & Muir, the Edinburgh-based wine and spirits merchant that also owned Glenmorangie distillery.

MacDonald & Muir changed its name to The Glenmorangie Company in 1996 and the following year purchased the run-down Ardbeg distillery on Islay.

The company, along with all its subsidiaries, brands and distilleries, was acquired by French luxury goods group LVMH (Louis Vuitton-Moët Hennessy) in 2004, after which a number of key brands such as James Martin and Ballie Nicol Jarvie were sold off or discontinued as the company moved away from blends to focus solely on its two single malt brands.

Douglas Macniven is now listed as a dormant subsidiary of The Glenmorangie Company.

Distilleries & Brands

  • Glen Morven Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Contact

Address
Douglas McNiven & Company
The Cube
45 Leith Street
Edinburgh
EH1 3AT
United Kingdom
Phone
+44 131 603 8888
Map

See also

  • Ardbeg Ardbeg Ardbeg Distillery & brand

    Ardbeg

    Ardbeg is one of Islay's sweetest malts.

  • Glenmorangie Glenmorangie Glenmorangie Distillery & brand

    Glenmorangie

    French-owned site by the Dornoch Firth.

  • Bailie Nicol Jarvie Bailie Nicol Jarvie Bailie Nicol Jarvie Brand

    Bailie Nicol Jarvie

    A 20th century blend nurtured by Macdonald & Muir that was eventually withdrawn in 2014.

  • James Martin & Company James Martin & Company James Martin & Company Blender

    James Martin & Company

    Producer of the James Martin blends, and now a subsidiary company of The Glenmorangie Co Ltd.

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