Inchgower 12 Year Old - 1980s

One of the great unsung Speyside distilleries, Inchgower’s importance to owner Diageo’s blends (particularly Bell’s) is so crucial that it is rarely officially bottled as a single malt. Inchgower’s spirit is known for its robust quality and structure, and is therefore well-suited both to long ageing and to sherry casks, but it also shines in refill bourbon casks where its clean, muscular profile can develop beautifully over longer maturation periods.

Inchgower was officially bottled as a 12-year-old ‘From the House of Bell's’ from the early 1970s until the late 1980s, when it was replaced by the Flora & Fauna 14-year-old. The best official bottlings are a pair of excellent Inchgower Rare Malts from 1974 and 1976 released in 1997 and 2004. Outstanding independent bottlings of 1960s and 1970s Inchgower vintages have been bottled by Cadenhead’s, Douglas Laing, Moon Import and the SMWS, among others.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.