Royal Brackla 1970 - Connoisseurs Choice Miniature

Royal Lochnagar is the smallest and one of the prettiest distilleries in Diageo's stable. Lochnagar acquired its Royal Warrant from Prince Albert in 1848 after he and Queen Victoria accepted an invitation from the distillery’s canny owner John Begg to visit the distillery, which is a stone’s throw from Balmoral.

Royal Lochnagar’s distillery capacity is just 500,000 litres and the make is an important part of both Johnnie Walker Blue Label and the Windsor blended whisky, a prominent brand in Asia. Official bottlings of Royal Lochnagar as a single malt are therefore limited to the standard 12-year-old, occasional Special Release editions and the popular Selected Reserve bottling, which first appeared in the late 1980s - at which time it was the most expensive single malt whisky in Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distillers’ portfolio. Indie bottlings of Lochnagar are scarce but well worth seeking out.

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.