The Urguhart family established in 1895 what is undoubtedly the oldest independent bottler in the world: Gordon & Macphail from Elgin. Apart from being an Indie, they also own and run a legendary whisky shop in Elgin and since 1993 they are the proprietors of the Benromach distillery in Speyside. They are probably best know for their wide variety of bottling such as the Connoisseurs Choice, Private Collection, MacPhail’s Collection, Cask, Rare Old and Pride of the Regions. They are known to have a huge amount of stocks (in their own warehouses) from many distilleries, some of which are closed. In fact, they probably have the largest and oldest stocks in the world. That is why they were able to release the world’s two oldest whiskies to date: a Mortlach 70 Year Old in 2010, followed by a Glenlivet 70 Year Old in 2011. Their exquisite range Speymalt is a Macallan, of which the company also has stocks going back to the 1940s.
In 1840, the brothers James and John Grant (at that time managers of the lost distillery Dandelaith) decided to ask for a distilling license and founded Glen Grant near Rothes (Speyside). It was, by 1861, the first distillery to have lighting based on electricity. In 1864 James Grant Junior becomes the new manager and builts a second distillery across the road: Glen Grant No 2 – which would be renamed Caperdonich in 1965, but was sadly mothballed in 2002 and demolished in 2010. In 1961 Glen Grant becomes the best selling malt in Italy, thanks to the close friendship between then manager Douglas Mackessack and Armando Giovinetti. Today, they produce about 5.9 million litres of spirit per annum. In 2007, Campari group, the current owners, decide to build a visitor center and open up the world famous Victorian Garden to the public. Half of the production goes into the Chivas Regal blend, the other has is released as single malt.
Not in our stock, can be ordered, this takes approx 1 week.