Girvan distillery  The Girvan distillery is a Lowland grain whisky distillery located in South Ayrshire, Scotland. The distillery is owned by William Grant & Sons. The Girvan Distillery is one of the largest facilities in Scotland in which whisky is made. The distillery is named after the town of Girvan. The distillery is known as one of the most energy efficient distilleries in Scotland. Girvan distillery was built in 1963 with the installation of its first Coffey still in 1963, which was celebrated with their first official bottling. The reason for William Grant & Sons building the distillery was because of a quarrel between the Grant family and DCL. Under the close eye of Charles Grant Gordon, the Girvan distillery was built and producing alcohol within nine months of ground break.The company introduced its export single grain whisky, Black Barrel in 1985 to the Spain, Portugal, and Italy markets. Ladyburn operated as a single malt distillery on site from 1965 until 1975. Since 2007, the site has also incorporated the Ailsa Bay Distillery. The opening was attended by Prince Charles in 2009. The first release from Ailsa Bay was a peated Lowland whisky, rare for the Lowland area. It is rich and earthy, with sweet aniseed, hints of tar and an ABV of 48.9%. In March 2019, Ailsa Bay released a new brand of scotch whisky which was protected with blockchain technology to prevent counterfeiting. The distillery also produces Hendrick's Gin. This uses not only the traditional juniper infusion, but also cucumber and Bulgarian rose. It won the 2003 "Wall Street Journal" award for the "Best All Around Gin".