Tomintoul 1968-2012 - Gordon & MacPhail - Rare Old - Lot RO/12/06

Tomintoul is an overlooked distillery at auction, meaning that the distillery’s high quality drams often represent very good value for drinkers. Rescued from Whyte & MacKay in 2000 when it was bought by Angus Dundee Distillers, Tomintoul’s motto ‘The Gentle Dram’ is a good indicator of what to expect from most modern bottlings.

It might be thought that Tomintoul’s misfortune is to be a purveyor of subtle, nuanced Speyside whisky in an era where boisterous heavily-flavoured peaty or sherried whiskies are in vogue, but the distillery also makes a heavily-peated malt whisky of its own which is marketed as Old Ballantruan.

At auction, long-aged independent bottlings of Tomintoul and official releases from the 1970s or early 1980s often reveal a slightly more robust, fruity, waxy Highland style, and generally offer an impressive bang for your buck.

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.