Elgin-based Gordon & MacPhail has added an "extraordinary" 74-year-old whisky valued at £35,000 per bottle to its Private Collection range.
Gordon & MacPhail 1949 from Glenlivet Distillery was laid down in a refill Sherry butt on New Year’s Day 1949 and bottled on March 6, 2023. Retaining a cask strength of 49.3%, only 192 bottles of the ultra-rare whisky are available for sale.
Having been aged for more than seven decades, it is among one of the oldest Glenlivet released by Gordon & MacPhail. It is also the company’s last ever 1949 cask from Glenlivet Distillery.
“To find a whisky of this age is absolutely extraordinary," whisky writer Dave Broom said. "What comes across immediately is the fruit - there’s richness and there’s depth. You have this wonderful interplay of distillery character, of oak and oxygen. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
“When you taste it, you taste time. You can taste all the vintages and everything that’s happened. The concentration of fruits, the layers and the complexity are off the scale. You’d think it’s an old whisky but it’s not just an old whisky. It's an extraordinary whisky.”
Ewen Mackintosh, managing director at Gordon & MacPhail, said: “Patience, knowledge, skill, and a commitment to quality are all principles exemplified in this greatly aged single malt.
"Gordon & MacPhail 1949 from Glenlivet Distillery is extremely scarce – our very last cask of Glenlivet from 1949, making it a must for whisky enthusiasts looking to savour a remarkable greatly aged single malt exuding layers of character and decades of maturation expertise.”
READ MORE: Profits fall at Gordon & MacPhail despite strong international sales
Founded in 1895, family-owned Gordon & MacPhail has bottled spirit from more than 100 Scottish distilleries, developing unique experience of how to mature single malts for many decades in their own casks.
It owns the Benromach Distillery in Forres and The Cairn distillery in the Cairngorm National Park, and recently announced that from 2024 it will no longer fill casks with spirit from distilleries it does not own. However, whiskies carrying the Gordon & MacPhail name will continue to be released from the company’s existing portfolio of rare and sought-after malts for the next several decades.
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