History

Glencadam, which is situated in the Burgh of Brechin, was built in the era of optimism that followed the passing of the 1823 Excise Act. After passing through a number of owners, it became part of the estate of Glasgow blender Gilmour Thompson & Co which bought the distillery in 1891.

The blending house ceased trading in 1954 when Glencadam was sold to Canadian distiller Hiram Walker, which was then starting its first acquisitive sweep through Scotland. Through a process of amalgamation it became part of Allied Distillers and was seen as being the ‘home’ of the Dundee blend Stewart’s Cream of the Barley.

Allied mothballed the plant in 2000 but it was purchased three years later by London-based Angus Dundee. Angus Dundee’s blending lab is now located at the distillery. Angus Dundee also own the Tomintoul Distillery.

A quiet player for most of its existence, Glencadam is slowly emerging as a single malt in its own right. Its recent proprietary bottlings have not been chill-filtered or caramel tinted.

The present owners quickly resumed production and the product from the distillery is used in their own blended and vatted malt whisky products, as well as being sold to other blenders. As of July 2010 Glencadam Malt Whisky is available in a range of official bottlings aged 10 to 21 years, as a component of Ballantine’s and Stewart’s Cream of the Barley blended whiskies, Angus Dundee’s own blended and vatted whiskies, and in a number of other blended brands. Independent bottlings are also readily available, both as single malt and as vatted malts.

In November 2008, Angus Dundee plc re-launched the Glencadam line with new packaging and added a new 10 year-old single malt. Then, in July 2010 the company added three new expressions: a 21-year-old, a 12-year-old finished in port wood, and a 14-year-old finished in an oloroso sherry cask. More recently a 17-year-old finished in port wood was also released.