Lochside 1981-2001 - 20 Year Old - Murray McDavid - Single Cask 2106

Lochside distillery started life as an 18th century beer brewery. The site was converted into a grain distillery in 1957 and two pairs of pot stills for malt whisky production were added in 1961. Lochside was therefore one of only a handful of Scottish distilleries capable of producing a single blend whisky, where both malt and grain spirits are from the same distillery.

Grain distillation was discontinued at Lochside in the early 1970s and in modern times only a handful of Lochside’s extraordinary single blends have been bottled, most notably by indie bottlers Scott’s Selection. The distillery’s single malts were also generally excellent, with a prominent fruity character often enhanced by sherry casks. Sadly, Allied Distillers bought and closed Lochside in 1992, and then sold the site in 1997 to a property developer who demolished Lochside soon afterwards - a sad end for a wonderful distillery.

Independent whisky bottler Murray McDavid was founded by La Réserve wine merchants Simon Coughlin and Mark Reynier with Gordon Wright from Springbank in 1994. Murray McDavid quickly established themselves in the new wave of indie bottlers, with a string of great whiskies bottled without colouring or chill filtration at a minimum strength of 46%.

After a failed bid for Ardbeg in 1997, Murray McDavid bought Bruichladdich distillery in 2000 and swiftly transformed the rundown distillery’s fortunes, employing Jim McEwan as manager and embracing the wine finishing trend with gusto. In 2012 Murray McDavid & Bruichladdich were bought by Rémy Cointreau, who sold Murray McDavid to Aceo Ltd, another whisky broker and bottling company, the following year.