St Magdalene 1975-2009 - Gordon & MacPhail - Rare Old

St. Magdalene distillery (sometimes known as Linlithgow) is one of the greatest and most sorely missed of the lost Lowland distilleries. The distillery’s 1983 closure attracted little outcry but a handful of extraordinary Rare Malts bottlings in the late 1990s brought home the scale of the loss. Thankfully, a great many casks of St. Magdalene/Linlithgow have appeared from independent bottlers, with high strength versions by Cadenhead’s, SMWS, Douglas Laing and Gordon & MacPhail all performing well at auction.

St. Magdalene’s spirit, although sometimes showing a typical Lowland grassiness, was also frequently considerably more robust and austere than one would expect, with the pre-1975 vintages in particular displaying a minerally, oily waxiness more akin to the old Highland style malts than the soft Lowland archetype, while post-1975 vintages sometimes tend more towards elegance and fruitiness. A marvellous distillery that malt fans must try while bottlings still exist.

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.