#gordon macphail

[abottleinhand]

Gordon & MacPhail Ardmore 1996 17 year old

Single malt Highland Scotch whisky

This was a beautiful whisky. For my palate and preference it had the perfect balance of light smoke and sherry sweet.

[whiskytastings]

Review #196: MacPhail’s Collection Highland Park 8 year old

43% ABV, natural colour, non-chill-filtered Distillery: Highland Park Distillery, Orkney, Scotland Producer: Gordon & MacPhail

Located in Kirkwall on the Mainland island of Orkney, Highland Park is the most northerly distillery in Scotland. Although the beginnings of the distillery are a bit nebulous and clouded by folklore, the official story goes that the distillery was founded by one Magnus Eunson, a smuggler-turned-moonshiner, in 1798. This would make Highland Park one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, and one of only seven distilleries still active today, that were founded during the 18th century. From the origins as an illicit distillery, things became more official in 1826, when the distillery in the current location, initially under the name Kirkwall distillery, was erected by Robert Borwick and received a distilling license. From Borwick’s sons George and James the distillery was sold on to William Stuart, owner at the time of Miltonduff distillery, around 1870. A few years later Stuart entered into a business deal with James Grant from Glen Grant distillery, who took over ownership outright in 1895. During Grant’s tenure, the distillery was expanded and modernised, and Highland Park became an important supplier for whisky brokers Robertson & Baxter (R&B). In 1937, Highland Park became part of R&B’s sister company Highland Distillers, and in 1999 Highland Distillers became part of The Edrington Group, which owns Highland Park distillery today.

Gordon & MacPhail (G&M) was founded in 1895 by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail, Wine & Spirit Merchants from Elgin in the heart of Speyside. After MacPhail and Gordon had passed, John Urquhart, one of the first employees of the firm, became owner of the business, and the company has remained in the ownership of the Urquhart family ever since. Urquhart extended the whisky trading business, and used his relations with a number of Speyside distilleries to fill and mature his own casks, and independently bottle those single malt whiskies. G&M have since become one of the most prolific and well regarded independent bottlers, and have whiskies from numerous Scottish distilleries in their range, many of which are not available as official bottlings. In the 1993 G&M took over Benromach distillery, rebuilt and reopened it and are since not just independent bottlers but also producers of their own malt whisky.

Gordon & MacPhail have had an 8 year old bottling of Highland Park in their “MacPhail’s Collection” bottling range for over a decade now. It is aged in refill Sherry hogsheads and bourbon barrels and, like all G&M whiskies, is bottled un-chill-filtered and is natural in colour.

Eye: The MacPhail’s Collection Highland Park 8 year old comes in a simple yet elegant cardboard tube with the G&M typical cutout. The whisky is pale straw in colour. Nose: Lemon zest, passion fruit, green apple, fresh cut grass, porridge, vanilla pod, icing sugar, sharp ginger, ozone, minerally brine and a very faint whiff of sulphur and peat smoke. Palate: Quite more pronounced peaty, while not overwhelming. Fresh and mouthwatering, with citrus rind, grapefruit, ripe pear, some tropical fruit, chilli and peppery heat, with some young spirit noticeable. Finish: Short to medium with just a touch of charred wood, ash and tannic dryness. Verdict: Clearly young and a bit raw, but with a mouthwatering freshness, soft peat and a lovely bit of cask influence noticeable on the finish. 82/100

[whiskytastings]

Review #190: Miltonduff 10 year old Gordon & MacPhail

40% ABV, natural colour, chill-filtered  Distillery: Miltonduff Distillery, Speyside, Scotland Producer: Gordon & MacPhail

Miltonduff distillery was officially established in 1824 on the grounds of a 13th century monastery, and at the site of an older distillery by the name of Milton. The “duff” was added to the name in reference to the Duff family that owned the property. , that  distillery. The founders of the distillery were Robert Bain and Andrew Peary, and production started only a year after the "Excise Act" of 1823, that greatly reduced the cost of acquiring a distilling license and allowed many illicit distillers to become legal. 

The distillery was sold to William Stuart in 1866, and again in 1895 to Thomas Yool & Co., before it was taken over by Hiram Walker Gooderham & Worts Ltd. in 1936. Having made vast profits during Prohibition in the United States, the Canadian firm went on a spending spree across Europe following the repeal. After taking over George Ballantine & Son a year earlier, the firm was eager to secure sufficient supply of malt whisky for the production of Ballantine’s Blended Scotch, and bought both Miltonduff as well as Glenburgie distillery in 1936.

Between 1964 and 1981 the distillery operated two Lomond stills, and the whisky from these stills was sold under the name "Mosstowie". Invented in 1955 by Alistair Cunningham, an engineer of Hiram Walker, Lomond stills are basically a hybrid between a traditional pot still and a continuous still, with a modified neck on top of the copper pot, that contains three or more perforated plates, similar to a column still. This allows the operator to control the amount of reflux in the still, and allow for the production of a wider range of whisky styles. Ultimately though, this type of stills did not deliver the best quality of malt whisky, and most distilleries that had experimented with Lomond stills removed them again during the 1980′s. Today only Scapa (one of the wash stills) and Bruichladdich - for the production of gin - still operate Lomond stills.

In 1986 Hiram Walker was acquired by Allied Lyons, and the company became part of Pernod Ricard in 2005, which still owns and operates Miltonduff distillery to this day. During the late 80′s a 12 year old official bottling was available, but in more recent years this 10 year old bottling from Gordon & MacPhail has acted as the de-facto distillery bottling. It is natural in colour and due to the 40% ABV has been lightly chill-filtered.

Eye: The G&M Miltonduff comes with a bespoke label to underline the de-facto OB status of this bottling, and simple yet elegant cardboard packaging. The whisky is pale gold in colour. Nose: Green and florally. Crisp apple, gooseberry, kiwi, rhubarb and herbaceous mint. Some overripe pineapple in the background, with malty cereal and vanilla essence. Palate: Sweet and sour, with tart apple, lemon and rhubarb balanced by honey and simple syrup sweetness, with a grassy, herbaceous undercurrent, vanilla and nutty cereal flavours.  Finish: Medium length with lingering cereal and oak, and the faintest touch of smoke. Verdict: Light, unpretentious and elegant with good acidity and some nice grassy rhubarb notes. Seems like a more delicate, softer sibling of the Teaninich Flora & Fauna. 83/100 

[blulou1]

A New Life

Review of the Hagafen Brut Cuvée 2012 and Gordon & MacPhail (“Rare Vintage” range) Glen Grant 1958.

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Washington Jewish Week  May 21, 2015

We recently had some reasons to rejoice and make merry. As our readers would expect, there were more than a few bottles opened with family and friends. The occasion? One of us had an addition to the family!  

As Judaism is…

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