Imperial 1979-1997 - Gordon & MacPhail

Originally founded in 1897, Imperial was a Speyside distillery that enjoyed only sporadic production. Imperial was owned for most of its lifetime by Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distillers, who only operated it between 1955-1985. Imperial was sold in 1989 to Allied Distillers, who briefly restarted production but mothballed it again in 1998. Allied Distillers were taken over in 2005 by Pernod Ricard, who demolished Imperial in 2013 to make way for the construction of the enormous Dalmunach distillery. 

Imperial was never officially bottled as a single malt during its lifetime, although Allied did a rather mediocre official 15-year-old around the turn of the millennium with the distillery already in mothballs. The best Imperial single malts are older vintage independent bottlings from Cadenhead’s and Douglas Laing, and more recent editions from Signatory, the SMWS and Elixir Distillers.

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.