Invergordon 1972-2016 - 43 Year Old - Cadenheads Black Label - Small Batch

The Invergordon distillery was founded in 1959 and commenced distillation in 1961. Parent company Invergordon Distillers had wider ambitions than just grain distillation and installed pot stills for their Ben Wyvis malt distillery on the Invergordon site in 1965. This was followed by the construction of Tamnavulin and the purchase of other malt distilleries including Bruichladdich, Tullibardine and Deanston. 

Ben Wyvis fell silent in 1977 (though the stills found a new lease of life later at Glengyle) and Invergordon Distillers itself changed hands soon afterwards, subsequently buying Glenallachie and Jura distilleries in the 1980s before a hostile takeover by Whyte & Mackay in 1993. Today, Whyte & Mackay is owned by Philippines company Emperador Inc and Invergordon makes around 35m litres of grain whisky annually for Whyte & Mackay’s blends.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.