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Coleburn 1981-2015 - Gordon & MacPhail - Rare Old - Lot RO/15/08
Coleburn 1981 - 2015. Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail for their Rare Old series. Lot number RO/15/08. One of 161 bottles. 70cl. 46%.
A 1981 Coleburn bottled at 46% in 2015 by Gordon & MacPhail for their Rare Old series. Lot RO/15/08 was an edition of just 161 bottles showing a distinct sherry influence, with a lively mix of rich fig and plum notes balanced by grapefruity citrus. A brilliant thirty-something Coleburn that shows the depth this lost Speysider was capable of producing at its finest.
Coleburn whisky distillery was founded in Speyside in 1897 and was owned by Diageo forerunner Distillers Company Limited (DCL) from 1915 until it closed in 1985. Coleburn's malt was old-school Highland style and the distillery was instrumental in early experiments on effluent purification techniques. Coleburn distillery is now the HQ of warehousers and bottlers Aceo Ltd.
Almost all of Coleburn’s whisky was blended away, and very little has survived as single malt - the only official bottling was an outstanding 1979 vintage Rare Malts Edition released in 2000. Aceo released a blended Scotch whisky under the Coleburn name in 2018 but it’s unlikely to have Coleburn single malt in it. Coleburn independent bottlings are rare, but generally very high quality. Gordon & MacPhail are the only company to have bottled Coleburn single malt since 2011, so the last casks may soon be exhausted.
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.