Old Pulteney Pure Highland Malt - Cadenheads - 1960s

One of Scotland’s last remaining urban distilleries, the Pulteney distillery is ensconced, as it has been since its foundation in 1826, at the corner of a street in the fishing town of Wick in the Northern Highlands. Pulteney has remained one of Wick’s greatest assets despite the fact that the distillery was closed between 1930 and 1951 after the pious residents voted to ‘go dry’, enacting a US-style alcohol prohibition.

After an ownership merry-go-round that included spells under DCL, Hiram Walker and Allied Domecq, Pulteney was acquired in 1995 by Inver House who have done an admirable job taking Pulteney distillery from a blending workhorse to an established high quality single malt brand. Stylistically, Pulteney is an old-school Highland malt with a thread of smoke and a distinctive saline edge, so older independent bottlings of Pulteney are well worth seeking out at auction.

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.