Glenlivet 1950-2001 - Gordon & MacPhail

One of Scotland’s iconic distilleries, Glenlivet is currently the joint largest single malt whisky distillery in Scotland at 21m litres per annum. The distillery was expanded in 2010, raising the number of stills to fourteen, before the construction of a third stillhouse in 2018 brought the total number of stills to 28. Having achieved production parity with Glenfiddich, Glenlivet is now catching their rival in sales terms as well and may soon become the biggest-selling single malt whisky in the world. 

Glenlivet has rarely been independently bottled, but the official releases are sufficiently plentiful and diverse that this isn’t an issue. Glenlivet ages well in both bourbon and sherry casks, and a raft of official releases at various strengths, ages and cask types are available to satisfy the pickiest whisky buyers. At auction the old 1950s and 1960s vintages bottled for the Cellar Collection are always worth looking out for.

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.