Pride of Strathspey 25 years Gordon & MacPhail

Lot presentation

Pride of Strathspey 25 years Gordon & MacPhail

The wine

Pride of Strathspey is one of the brands created by Gordon & MacPhail, alongside Glen Avon, Old Elgin, Highland Fusilier and Glen Gordon. There has been no confirmation of which distillery it was produced at, although many think it was Macallan. This 25 year old version bottled in the 1980s is, however, a blended malt made from Highland and Speyside whiskies. Gordon & MacPhail is one of Scotland’’s oldest independent bottlers. It was founded in Elgin in 1895 by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail. As was often the case at the time, the business started out as a delicatessen and wine merchant. In 1915, John Alexander MacPhail retired and a new partner joined the business, John Urquhart. He was joined by his son George in 1933, a few years after James Gordon sadly died in a car crash. Gordon & MacPhail works with many of Speyside’’s leading distilleries, from whom it has accumulated considerable stocks. It is also licensed to bottle whiskies for many of them, including Glen Grant, Linkwood, Mortlach, Macallan and Glenlivet. The business really took off in the 1970s, acquiring distributors in a huge range of countries and selling casks to several Italian bottlers in selections that would become legends in their own right. Gordon & MacPhail is still run by the Urquhart family today, from the same building, and is one of the most iconic bottlers in the industry, with incredible stocks of sometimes very old and rare whiskies. The company is in complete control of the entire maturation process.