Glen Mhor 1979-2001 - 22 Year Old - Rare Malts 61.0%

Glen Mhor was an old-school Highland distillery that was closed by Diageo forerunner DCL during the whisky lake crisis in 1983. Built in Inverness in 1892, Glen Mhor made a rich, oily, grassy, austere Highland single malt whisky and was run independently for most of its life by distillers and blenders Mackinlay & Birnie, who also owned the neighbouring Glen Albyn distillery in Inverness. DCL bought Mackinlay & Birnie in 1972.

Mackinlay & Birnie bottled Glen Mhor as a single malt very early on, and 1950s-70s official bottlings of Glen Mhor 6-year-old, 10-year-old and 12-year-old crop up at auction from time to time. Diageo released two 1970s vintages in the Rare Malts series in the early 2000s and Gordon & MacPhail bottled high class Glen Mhor under license and for their own ranges. Some great Glen Mhor whiskies have been bottled by Moon Import, Cadenhead’s and the SMWS, among others.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.