HISTORY OF THE DISTILLERY
1900-1913
A comfortable little backwater
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HISTORY OF THE DISTILLERY
1900-1913
A comfortable little backwater
Up until the outbreak of the First World War Glenmorangie operated as a comfortable little backwater. It exported all over the world, mainly to expatriate Ross-shire folk in the Colonies, but also to hotels and businesses in Europe and the United States. The bulk of its trade was within the United Kingdom, however, with shipments going to outlets all over the country, including to such prestigious customers as the Savoy in London.
The local market, nevertheless, remained one of the distillery’s chief outlets, with pubs and hotels from Inverness to Dornoch - as well as private individuals - buying single casks or whole consignments. Local deliveries were made by the distillery’s own staff, John Bett the carter taking turns with George Ross and Alexander Smart (the manager) to cart orders to places such as Portmahomack, Kildary and Ballintore as well as Tain. Whisky could be sold straight from the bond to private customers and some folk even kept their own barrels in the warehouses and would turn up to pay the duty and take away as much as they needed in smaller casks. In turn the distillery bought as much of its supplies as possible from local sources. Barley in particular was bought in bulk from farmers all over Easter Ross and any shortfall would be made up by purchases through dealers. Part of the manager’s job was to travel around the country in the late summer to inspect the barley crop and deal and negotiate a reasonable price, always mindful that other local distilleries were competing for the same price.
Grain would start to arrive at Glenmorangie in the late summer and malting would resume as soon as adequate supplies had arrived to enable a rolling production to be achieved. Maltmen would start to be re-employed from late September to October and mashing would start again by November. Buying continued through the winter, with shipments being brought in by cart, railway and by ship until late April. At that time the stocks would be run down until one final malting would be carried out towards the end of May for the last mash of the session.
The maltmen were not immediately laid off, going instead (usually under the supervision of one of the older or more senior men) to cut the peat sods and stack them dry until they were already for collection at the end of the summer. Most of them would then find work for the summer in the lemonade factory in Tain. Sometimes some of the temporary labourers would be sent up to cut peat sods instead of maltmen if malting was to continue until later in the season, or the sons of other workers at the distillery would go along to make a few shillings more for their families. While they were up at Forsinard, usually for about ten to fourteen days, the men would lodge with shepherds and estate-workers. The maltmen would use these same peats in the kilns for the maltbarns in the autumn season and always tried to keep at least two years’ supply in the peat shed at Glenmorangie. Railway wagons would be hired from the Highland Railway Co in the later summer and one or two would go back up for a few days to transport the cut peat sods from the moors around Forsinard down to the station there, transfer them to the wagons and then travel south with their load to Tain. There the whole process had to be gone through again in reverse.
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