The Glasgow Distillery has named its two new whisky stills in honour of Margaret and Frances MacDonald - two members of the Glasgow Girls group of artists.
The new additions at the Hillington plant are identical replicas of its two existing stills, Tara and Mhairi and will double production capabilities to around 440,000 litres a year – the equivalent of over 1 million bottles of their single malt scotch whisky, 1770.
The MacDonalds were famous in the late 19th century for their industrial and technical artworks, often using metal, glass, wood, and textiles. They worked alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh and James Herbert MacNair and together they became known as The Glasgow Four, helping forge the Glasgow Style that remains synonymous with their home city.
Liam Hughes, CEO and Co-founder of The Glasgow Distillery, said: "I love that many contemporaries marvelled at the sisters’ metalwork - a heavy, dirty process that women usually avoided. They were mastering very manual - often dirty materials - at a time when women hadn’t even achieved the vote and were socially expected to have children and be homemakers.
“It seems incredibly fitting that we name our two new stills after sisters who specialised in hands-on, technical art practices such as metalwork and paved the way in traditionally male dominated practices.
“I couldn’t help but draw parallels between these women and women who work in the whisky industry nowadays, particularly in production. In its own way, distilling is an art and is an art that is respected worldwide. But on a day to day basis in a distillery, it can be very hands-on and technical. It is also an industry that is traditionally male dominated."
Fortunately, that is no longer the case at the distillery which has issued the 2019 release of 1770 Glasgow Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Hughes added: “Thankfully times are changing in the drinks industry and I am so pleased to see more and more females applying for jobs in production at Glasgow Distillery. At the moment, over half of our employees are female and under 30 years old.
"Thankfully, this is a trend which the spirits industry is starting to follow en-masse but we, and indeed the drinks industry, still have a long way to go!"
