Hendrick's Gin

Born in December 1839, William Grant became a cattle herder at the age of 7 in order to supplement his family's income. As a teenager, Grant apprenticed as a cobbler and a clerk, and in 1866, he joined Mortlach Distillery as a bookkeeper. For the next two decades, Grant managed the affairs at the distillery, while secretly learning the art of distillation. In 1886, he resigned from his position as distillery manager and, together with his seven sons, two daughters and one sporadically working stonemason, built his family distillery in Scotland.

Over a century later, Charles Gordon, Grant’s great-grandson and successor at William Grant & Sons, purchased two unusual and incredibly rare stills at auction — a Carter-Head Still (constructed in 1948, there are only a few in the entire world) and a dusty 19th-century Bennett. Although he didn’t find a use for these stills initially, more than twenty years later he enlisted the help of master distiller and gin scientist Lesley Gracie to assist in his quest to create something extraordinary from the stills. Finally, in 1999, Gordon and Gracie found the perfect combination and launched Hendrick’s Gin.