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Longmorn 1961 - 2018. 57 Year Old. Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail for their Private Collection series. Cask number 508. One of 100 bottles matured in a First-Fill Sherry Hogshead. 70cl. 45%. In presentation box with original outer packaging. Please note the booklet holder on the right hand side is missing.
An exceptionally rare 57-year-old Longmorn, distilled on 2 February 1961 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail on 2 February 2018 as part of their prestigious Private Collection.
Cask 508 was a first-fill European oak sherry hogshead selected by the legendary George Urquhart and filled with Longmorn new make in 1961. After more than three decades at the distillery, the cask was transferred to Gordon & MacPhail’s warehouses in Elgin in March 1996, where it continued its maturation until being bottled exactly 57 years after distillation.
This remarkable whisky was one of two Longmorn 1961 casks released together as Gordon & MacPhail’s Private Collection Twin Set. Casks 508 and 512 had both been commissioned by George Urquhart and filled on the same day, before being selected more than half a century later by his grandsons, twin brothers Stuart and Richard Urquhart. The contrasting casks were chosen to reflect the differing personalities of the twins, as well as demonstrating how two whiskies sharing the same origin and maturation period could develop distinctly different characters.
Cask 512 was an American oak first-fill sherry hogshead bottled at 40.8%, while this bottle is from Cask 508, a European oak first-fill sherry hogshead bottled at 45%. Just 100 bottles were released.
At the time of release, the two 57-year-olds were the oldest Longmorn single malts ever bottled. A fascinating piece of both Longmorn and Gordon & MacPhail history, connecting George Urquhart’s original cask selection with his twin grandsons 57 years later and providing an extraordinary demonstration of the influence of individual cask maturation across almost six decades.
One of the greatest Speyside distilleries, Longmorn was founded in 1894 and today is one of the shiniest stars in owner Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Brothers portfolio of whisky distilleries. Although official bottlings are thin on the ground, Longmorn’s whisky was for many years bottled under license by Gordon & MacPhail, who have released a high proportion of the all-time classic Longmorns and still put out outstanding long-aged Longmorn today.
Longmorn’s whisky sparkles in both sherry and bourbon casks and is capable of withstanding extremely long maturation periods while still retaining (particularly in the older vintages) a superb old-school waxiness and the distillery’s trademark grapefruit and exotic fruit flavours, with the fruitiest examples coming from the mid-1970s and earlier. Older vintages also generally have more prominent threads of smoke and mineral notes among the honeyed fruit and chocolate biscuit flavours.
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.
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