Speyside 15 Year Old - 1990s

The whisky entrepreneur George Christie, who built the now-defunct North of Scotland grain distillery in 1957, commissioned the construction of a new single malt whisky distillery in Speyside in 1962. Beset by delays, the distillery was completed in 1987, the year after Christie had sold the company, and the new Speyside distillery finally began producing spirit in 1990.

Early bottlings of Speyside’s whisky, such as Drumguish, were not met with great success in the UK, but the distillery subsequently found its niche producing the Spey Malt and several proprietary blends for Asian markets. After being bought in 2000 by a consortium including George Christie’s son Ricky, Speyside changed hands again in 2012 when it was taken over by Harvey’s of Edinburgh.

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.