North Port-Brechin 1981-2004 - Gordon & MacPhail - Connoisseurs Choice

One of the less well-known casualties of the 1983 round of DCL distillery closures, North Port distillery (sometimes known as Brechin) has now been largely forgotten. Only half a dozen or so North Ports have appeared from independent bottlers in the last decade and, unless Diageo are planning a 40-year-old, it seems likely that the last cask has been bottled. The distillery itself was demolished in 1994 and replaced by a supermarket.

North Port ploughed away for decades as a blend-fodder workhorse but was never officially bottled in its working lifetime. The distillery’s profile was raised briefly by some outstanding mid-1990s Rare Malt bottlings and a 2005 Special Release; subsequently, with little stock available for independent bottlers, the North Port distillery returned to obscurity. A high quality old style Highland single malt whisky, well worth seeking out while bottles can still be found.

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.