Invergordon 7 Year Old - 1990s

The Invergordon distillery was founded in 1959 and commenced distillation in 1961. Parent company Invergordon Distillers had wider ambitions than just grain distillation and installed pot stills for their Ben Wyvis malt distillery on the Invergordon site in 1965. This was followed by the construction of Tamnavulin and the purchase of other malt distilleries including Bruichladdich, Tullibardine and Deanston. 

Ben Wyvis fell silent in 1977 (though the stills found a new lease of life later at Glengyle) and Invergordon Distillers itself changed hands soon afterwards, subsequently buying Glenallachie and Jura distilleries in the 1980s before a hostile takeover by Whyte & Mackay in 1993. Today, Whyte & Mackay is owned by Philippines company Emperador Inc and Invergordon makes around 35m litres of grain whisky annually for Whyte & Mackay’s blends.

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.