PAST MASTERS
Producing really good-quality, aged whisky requires foresight to the point of precognition, plus careful planning and a shed load of patience
Whisky bottlers, Gordon & MacPhail are experts at playing the waiting game
Gordon & MacPhail are one of the most highly revered independent bottlers of Scotch whisky in t he world, and rightly so. The grocery and wine merchant on South Street in Elgin was founded in 1895 by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail who were joined a year later by partner John Urquhart.
Fast forward over 120 years and the fourth generation of the Urquhart family are still at the helm of this thriving operation which employs over 130 people in Elgin. They also own and operate Benromach distillery in Forres, which they bought in 1993.
In the 1960s, Gordon & MacPhail began bottling single malt whiskies under the Connoisseur’s Choice label. Until this point nearly all the single malt whiskies bottled with the Connoisseur’s Choice label would have previously been earmarked for making blends. At t he time Gordon & MacPhail stocked the largest selection of bottled whisky in the world and today their South Street store lists over 1,000 different drams. The competitively priced Connoisseur’s Choice range is still at the core of the G&M stable along with other special ranges such as Rare Vintage and MacPhail’s.
While many independent bottlers simply buy already-matured whisky, Gordon & MacPhail often get their own casks filled to order with new-make spirit before leaving the casks to mature at that distillery or their own bonded warehouses in Elgin. Their long history and long-standing relationships with distilleries across Scotland allow them to have control of the whisky by knowing the origins and quality of the casks before they are even filled. This shrewd tactic ensures from the outset that the mature whisky will be of a high quality.
There is an old expression in the whisky industry that it is ‘t he wood that makes the whisky’ and this is something at the heart of the company’s portfolio. Unlike most independent bottlers, who focus on bottling, Gordon & MacPhail focus on the maturation and only bottle when they deem the whisky to be ready. Their approach to the importance of matura- tion has been highlighted in their Wood makes the Whisky campaign, which was launched in early 2016.
A striking example of their forward planning is the creation of the Generations range. The first bottling in the series was in March 2010 with Generations Mortlach 70 year old, the world’s oldest bottled single malt. A year later, the second release, Generations Glenlivet 1940 70 year old, was launched. The bar was raised even further in 2015 with the release of the Generations Mortlach 75 year old, an incredibly rare whisky which I wrote about in the January 2016 issue of Scottish Field.
Most recently Gordon & MacPhail have launched the Speyside Collection featuring six very rare and old Speyside whiskies. Only 75 sets are available, priced at £10,500 for a set. This may seem steep but with a combined age of 329 years and average age of 54 it is not extortionate. A stunning set of exceedingly limited and rare whiskies, they have been maturing under the watchful eyes of generations of Urquharts. When they laid down these stocks to mature they knew that they would not be bottled in their lifetime.
Apart from perhaps hardwood forestry, I cannot think of any other industry as patient as the whisky industry.
Gordon & MacPhail have clearly got very long-term plans and I have absolutely no doubt they will be continuing to push forward with new and interesting independent bottlings of fine single malt whiskies in another 120 years. I wonder what plans and stock the current management team are laying down for their children and their children’s children. Time will tell.
‘I cannot think of any other industry as patient as the whisky industry’