Tullibardine 1994-2006 - Gordon & MacPhail - Connoisseurs Choice

Like many of the other T distilleries, with the honourable exception of Talisker, Tullibardine is not a single malt that sets many hearts a-flutter. The distillery suffered under Whyte & MacKay’s chaotic management in the 1990s and was mothballed between 1994 and 2003, when it was sold to a private consortium.

Tullibardine’s new owners recommenced production and moved from supplying only blends and own-label bottlings to launching a range of Tullibardine official releases. Crucially, they also reracked a large proportion of the maturing stock from tired refill casks into fresh wine barriques.

Following the 2009 financial crisis, Tullibardine was sold in 2011 to French company Picard, who have done a good job expanding and repackaging the single malt range to raise the distillery’s profile. Long-aged official and independent bottlings of Tullibardine are good value at auction, particularly sherry-aged 1960s and 1970s vintages.

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.