Millburn 1974-2004 - 29 Year Old - Cadenheads Authentic Collection - Single Cask

Millburn is a lost Highland distillery, another victim of Diageo forerunner DCL’s catastrophic wave of distillery closures in the 1980s. The distillery’s character was very traditional old school unsexy Highland style, with a tweedy, waxy, oily funk and sometimes a thread of smoke. Aged for long periods in refill wood, Millburns often show a delightful fruitiness.

 The only official bottlings of Millburn were a trio of Rare Malts editions released between 1995-2005; all are excellent, but the standout was the classic 35-year-old Millburn 1969, which has become highly sought after. Independent bottlings of Millburn are relatively scarce, with only a tiny number released in the last decade. Unless Diageo or Gordon & MacPhail are hoarding stock for a 40-year-old Millburn release it seems likely that the last cask from this splendid lost Inverness distillery may already have been bottled.

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.