Lochside 1981-2005 - Gordon & MacPhail - Rare Old

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.

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.