Glenlossie 1969 - Connoisseurs Choice Miniature

One of Scotland’s more obscure distilleries, Glenlossie is part of Diageo’s stable of workhorse Speysiders. Founded in 1876, Glenlossie joined Diageo forerunner DCL’s portfolio in 1919 and now has six stills and a theoretical production capacity of just under 4 million litres per year. The Mannochmore distillery was built adjacent to Glenlossie in 1971.

Glenlossie’s crucial importance to the Haig and Dimple blended Scotch whisky brands has meant that the distillery has never been deemed worth marketing as a single malt in its own right, with the only regular distillery bottling being the Flora & Fauna 10-year-old first released in 1991. Independent bottlings of Glenlossie are relatively common, with recent highlights including 1975 vintage bottlings from The Whisky Agency, Cadenhead’s and Gordon & MacPhail and 1997 casks by Signatory Vintage, Jack Weiber and The Maltman among others.

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.