Chivas Regal

Type: Blended or sourced brand

Chivas Regal began with 25-year-old whisky and an eye on North America. Created in 1909, according to the producer’s archive, its first release was a blend aimed mainly across the Atlantic. The familiar name grew out of an Aberdeen grocery business, but the whisky brand arrived later, under the successors to James and John Chivas. [1]

What Chivas Regal is known for

Chivas Regal is the whisky brand; Chivas Brothers is the business behind it. Their histories begin more than a century apart. The producer traces the business to an Aberdeen grocery selling provisions, wine and spirits in 1801, and dates Chivas Regal itself to 1909. [1] For other blended Scotch histories, see another brand history and a further brand history.

North America was the principal intended market for the original Chivas Regal, according to the producer’s archive. The 12 Year Old familiar from its later history was still to come: the brand began with a blend containing 25-year-old whisky, drawing on an established merchant business’s experience with whisky. The archive names Master Blender Charles Howard as its creator. [1]

Strathisla is the distillery the producer calls Chivas Regal’s home, not another name for the brand. It also houses the Chivas Brothers Archive in Keith, bringing the company’s historical records together with the distillery most closely identified with its whisky. [1]

From Aberdeen groceries to a whisky business

James and John Chivas reached Aberdeen in 1836, where their cousin Alexander helped them find work. According to the producer’s account, James was born in 1810 and John in 1814, near Aberdeen in the parish of Ellon. They left Overton of Dudwick for the city, where James joined William Edward’s grocery in Castle Street. John went to work for merchant and hat maker D. L. Shirres in George Street. [1]

James subsequently became a partner in the grocery. In 1843, Queen Victoria granted him a Royal Warrant as “Purveyor of Grocery for Her Majesty in Ordinary”. It recognised the grocery business, not whisky: Chivas Regal would not exist for decades. [1]

John joined James in 1857, forming Chivas Brothers. Before Chivas Regal arrived, James and his successors had made seven branded whiskies, according to the producer’s archive. Whisky was already part of the business’s story. [1]

The producer also tells a more intimate origin story: the brothers made what they could not find and began blending in their shop cellar. The fact sheet classifies this as Legend, recording no primary evidence for the account. [2]

Story box: A grocery business becomes a whisky name

Chivas Regal’s first release

Who created Chivas Regal: Charles Howard alone, or Howard and Alexander Smith together? The producer’s archive credits Howard; the brand’s history credits both men. The archive also contains an inconsistent reference to “Alexander Stewart”. The fact sheet therefore classifies the precise creator credit as Disputed, while the 1909 launch remains documented. [1][2]

Composing a blend and bringing a brand into being are different roles, and the accounts may reflect that distinction. Howard’s role as Master Blender is the archive’s explicit attribution; the broader brand history gives Smith a share of the credit. The inconsistent names leave the exact allocation unresolved. [1]

Clerk Alexander Smith and Charles Stewart Howard had acquired the business in 1895. In the archive’s account, Howard created Chivas Regal in 1909 as a blend containing 25-year-old whisky. James and John established the business behind the name, but the brand itself was the work of their successors. [1]

Verdict badge: The original was not a 12 Year Old

Prohibition and the 12 Year Old

Prohibition interrupted Chivas Regal’s American story. The producer describes the whisky as a staple of New York high society before Prohibition, an account the fact sheet classifies as Documented. When Prohibition began in 1920, it says, the brand disappeared from the US market. Its accounts of the later 12 Year Old describe different milestones. [2][3]

The brand website says Chivas returned in 1938 as the 12-year-old blend known today. The archive says that in 1950 the company was still preparing to launch Chivas Regal 12 into the USA. The relationship between that claimed return and those launch preparations remains unresolved, and the fact sheet classifies the return date as Disputed. Neither date stands as an uncontested worldwide introduction date. [1][2]

A brand’s return, an expression’s introduction and its launch in a particular market can be separate events. What the record does establish is the sequence: the 12 Year Old came later than the original 1909 blend, rather than being the whisky with which Chivas Regal began. [1][2]

Strathisla and the growing business

The merchant business became a distiller with the purchase of Strathisla, its first distillery. The archive dates that step to 1950; the fact sheet records the purchase year as Disputed, and the source for an alternative date still needs verification before publication. The producer describes Strathisla as the home of Chivas Regal, giving the brand a distillery connection distinct from its Aberdeen origins. [1]

From buying a distillery, the business moved to building one. The archive records the construction of Glen Keith Distillery in 1957, followed by offices and a bottling plant in Paisley in 1964 as sales of Chivas Regal 12 Year Old grew. Together, these developments trace the expansion from a merchant business into a larger distilling and bottling organisation. [1]

During the 1970s, the company built further distilleries and acquired The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd, according to its archive. Pernod Ricard bought Chivas Brothers in 2001. This corporate history charts the growing business; it does not identify every whisky used in an individual Chivas Regal blend. [1]

A timeline of the brand and range

The number 25 appears at both ends of this story, but the releases are distinct: the original 1909 blend contained 25-year-old whisky, while the archive credits Colin Scott with creating Chivas Regal 25 in 2007. Scott also created Chivas Regal 18 in 1997, as the range developed through named additions rather than a single unchanged expression. [1]

These historical milestones distinguish the range from the business and its distilleries; they do not confirm current availability.

Reading the Royal Warrant correctly

The two Royal Warrants in the producer’s history cover different goods and stand 80 years apart. James Chivas’s 1843 warrant concerned groceries. The first warrant for Scotch whisky followed in 1923, with the wording “Purveyors of Scotch Whisky”. The fact sheet classifies this distinction as Documented. [1]

Chivas Brothers no longer holds a Royal Warrant, according to the archive. Both appointments should be described by their historical dates and purposes, not as current recognition. [1]

Where to go next

• Ballantine's: explore another blended Scotch brand alongside Chivas Regal.
• Dewar's: continue with the history of another blended Scotch name.
• Royal Salute: discover its separate reference entry; the names are not interchangeable.

Sources

[1] Chivas Brothers Archive. Our Story: The Chivas Brothers Story. Undated web history, checked November 2026.
https://history.chivasbrothersarchive.com/story/our-story/

[2] Chivas Regal. About Us: The Chivas Regal History. Undated web history, checked November 2026.
https://www.chivas.com/en-us/about-us/

[3] Chivas Brothers Archive. Timeline: Chivas Brothers. Undated web timeline, checked November 2026.
https://history.chivasbrothersarchive.com/timeline/

[4] Causeway Coast Whiskey Reviews. Strathisla 12 Year Old Single Malt Review. April 2018, checked November 2026.
https://www.causewaycoastwhiskeyreviews.com/2018/04/strathisla-12-year-old-single-malt.html

This desk-researched article follows fact sheet TOP-A244, distinguishing the producer’s historical account from the disagreements recorded in that sheet.

Last checked: November 2026