Ayrshire 1970-2000 - Gordon & MacPhail - Rare Old

Ladyburn was one of the shortest-lived Scottish distilleries and its Lowland single malt whisky is now exceptionally rare, as almost the entirety of Ladyburn’s spirit was destined for owner William Grant’s blending vats. Grant’s had built the Girvan grain distillery in 1963 and added four pot stills for Ladyburn in 1966, but sadly the distillery was deemed a failure after less than a decade and production ceased in 1975. 

Official bottlings of Ladyburn are extremely difficult to find. A 12-year-old Ladyburn was bottled in the 1980s and in 2000 over a dozen 1973 single casks were released. The latter were widely assumed to be the last stock, but in 2014-15 several more official Ladyburns from 1973 and 1974 appeared. Some excellent long-aged Ladyburns have been bottled as ‘Ayrshire’ by Signatory and Duncan Taylor - these are the best value at auction for anyone hunting for this unicorn whisky.

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.