Ardmore 1981-1996 - Gordon & MacPhail

Ardmore is a Highland malt whisky distillery founded in 1898 by the Teacher’s family to supply single malt whisky for their famous blend. Teacher’s was taken over by Allied Breweries in 1976, by which time Ardmore had expanded to eight stills. Allied was itself swallowed by Jim Beam Brands in 2005, and Ardmore was launched as a single malt in 2007 with the release of Ardmore Traditional Cask. Jim Beam merged with the Japanese drinks giant Suntory in 2014. 

Ardmore makes both peated and unpeated spirit, but only the peated version is bottled as single malt. Prior to the Jim Beam takeover, the only official Ardmores were a handful of legendary heavily sherried 1970s bottlings by Teacher’s and a pair of centenary bottlings from 1999. Under Beam/Suntory, official Ardmores are now widely available, while independent Ardmore is abundant and generally of excellent quality.

Founded in Elgin as a merchant grocer and wine and spirits wholesaler in 1895, Gordon & MacPhail are one of the oldest independent whisky bottlers in Scotland. Co-founder James Gordon owned shares in Longmorn, Strathisla and Glen Grant, and Gordon & MacPhail were soon bottling officially licensed single malts from several distilleries and sending empty casks from their wine business to be filled with new make spirit and returned for maturation in their Elgin warehouses.

Gordon & MacPhail pioneered high strength single malts at 100 proof (57%) in the 1950s, and in 1968 the company launched Connoisseurs Choice, one of the first integrated ranges of small batch independent whisky bottlings. After finally becoming distillers themselves with the purchase of Benromach in 1993, in 2010 Gordon & MacPhail bottled the first 70-year-old single malt whisky (a Mortlach 1938) and in 2020 the company released the first ever 80-year-old whisky: Glenlivet 1940.