LOT ID: 0224-454
End Date : Mar 20 2024 08:00 PM
Brora 1982 - 1997. Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail for their Connoisseurs Choice series. 70cl. 40%. In presentation box.
One of the earliest Gordon & MacPhail bottlings of Brora’s 1982 vintage, this Connoisseurs Choice edition appeared in 1997, making the whisky 14 or 15 years old. Distilled shortly before the distillery closed in 1983, this 1982 Brora has noticeably less phenolicity than the 1970s vintages, with a rich, oily, waxy palate dominated by fruit and farmyard notes.
FILLING LEVEL
Into Neck
The distillery now called Brora was known as Clynelish for most of its working life, producing a remarkable coastal Highland style lightly peated whisky with an acclaimed waxy character. Clynelish’s success led owners DCL to build a second distillery on the site in 1967, which is the Clynelish we know today.
The original Clynelish closed briefly in 1968, but reopened the following year as Brora to make a more heavily peated malt whisky for blending purposes. Sadly the distillery was later deemed surplus to requirements and was closed in 1983. DCL’s successors Diageo announced plans to reopen Brora in 2017 and after a lengthy restoration distillation recommenced in 2021.
Any Clynelish whiskies pre-dating the 1970s are from the distillery now known as Brora, as are most if not all of the old Ainslie & Heilbron official 12-year-olds that continued into the early 1980s. The most famous modern era Brora bottlings are the 1990s Rare Malts Editions (particularly the 1972 vintages) and the Brora 30-year-olds from Diageo’s Special Releases.
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.
| BID | DATE | TIME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £390.00 | 20th March 2024 | 19:46 | |
No Product Found
No Product Found