Glen Moray 12 Year Old - Circa 1990 - The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

One of Speyside’s larger distilleries, Glen Moray was the black sheep of Macdonald & Muir’s portfolio for decades, where it was understandably overshadowed by Glenmorangie (and later Ardbeg). The distillery was sold by Glenmorangie plc’s owners LVMH to French company La Martiniquaise at the end of 2008, since when it has supplied fillings for Label 5 blended whisky, which is unknown in the UK but is one of the bestselling Scotch whisky brands worldwide.

Away from the bottom shelf wine finishes first popularised in the Glenmorangie era, official bottlings of Glen Moray have included some superb old vintage editions, with the 1959 40-year-old and several excellent 1960s-70s vintage bottlings demonstrating what the distillery was really capable of. La Martiniquaise have not changed the formula much but deserve credit for releasing further prestige editions including the recent Glen Moray Mastery.

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.