Stewarts – Cream Of The Barley (70cl, 40%)

Stewarts – Cream Of The Barley is a whisky from Stewarts. Bottled at 40% ABV, 70cl. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the city of Dundee was almost as well known for its whisky blending activities as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth. One of the highest profile Dundee blenders was Stewart & Son, first established in 1831 by John Cunningham, initially trading from the Glengarry Inn on the city’s Castle Street, The firm was then taken over by Alexander Stewart in 1874. Stewart’s was best known for its Cream of the Barley and Royal Stewart blends. Upon his death, Alexander’s son, John Henderson Stewart then became sole partner of the business and also became sole partner of another Dundee whisky merchants, Fraser, Stewart & Co as well as deputy chairman of Sheffield Steel Products. He was created a baronet in the Kings 1920 Birthday Honours. A casualty of prohibition, On 7 February 1924, John Stewart died owing £592,000, (which would be between almost £32 million in today’s money). His body was discovered by two businessmen who had come for a meeting with him at his Perthshire home, Fingask Castle. He had been shot through the head. Stewart was deeply in debt at the time, as his whisky business was not doing well and an Edinburgh company in which he also had large interests in, Aitken, Melrose & Co Ltd, had just collapsed the previous day. An inquest returned a verdict of suicide. The business was incorporated as a limited company in 1924. From 1969, Allied Breweries (later to become Allied Lyons) were, therefore, the new owners of Stewart & Son and its Cream of the Barley blend. In 1987, Allied Lyons had acquired the UK side of Hiram Walker, forming Allied Distillers. And despite adverts over the previous years, highlighting the importance of Stewart & Son as blenders rather than distillers, meaning they were never committed to using any specific malts or grains and were at liberty to choose from anywhere, the following year, the company gained a major interest in Glencadam Distillery, then owned by Allied. Stewart’s operated a bottling hall on Dundee’s Kingsway East until 1994. The site was finally demolished in 2020 and redeveloped for housing. since 2005 the company and the Cream of the Barley blend has been in the ownership of Chivas Brothers Ltd. although now a non-trading company. The vestiges of Stewart & Son can still be seen on Castle Street today.