William Grant born in Dec. 1839 founded Balvenie Distillery.

Mr Grant became bookeeper at Mortlach distillery in 1866. While working there, he began a 20 year study of the distillery process. He worked his way up in the organization eventually moving to the clerk of the distillery and finally became the manager.

After almost twenty years of learning the art of distilling, William Grant resigned from his job at the Mortlach distillery and bought a field beneath the towering shadow of The Balvenie Castle. He then drew up plans for his distillery and the foundation stone was laid in the autumn of 1886.
However a new opportunity presented itself to Mr Grant.

The Balvenie New House became available and wasa purchased by William Grant in March of 1892. Uninhabitable and austere, it was a building of some grandeur with the coat of arms of the Duffs carved into the pediment of its second story

The basement was to become a bonded store for maturing whisky, the first storey a malt floor, whilst the upper two floors were to be used as grain lofts.

The building took fifteen months to complete and on 1st May 1893, the first distillation took place at The Balvenie Distillery