Scotland, Northern Highlands. Distillery operational. Owner: Inver House Distillers Ltd.

Located in the far north-east Highlands in the town of Wick, Pulteney achieved international renown with its classic 12 Year Old bourbon cask. It was bought by the Inver House Distillers group in 1995, who, to mark the new millennium, released a series of 15 year old cask strength 1982 single casks in the Millennium Single Cask range.The series has since inspired others and, for those brave enough to travel to Wick, the distillery offers the personalized range “Hand Bottled at the Distillery”, opening Old Pulteney up to the world of collectors.

A single cask Old Pulteney (#1193) distilled in 1997 and bottled in 2008 by Gordon & MacPhail. In the 1970s, the famous Elgin bottler was licensed to bottle whiskies from many distilleries, creating its own style of label, first for each group—like Hiram Walker, which owned Old Pulteney at the time, and Distillers Company Limited—then, in the 1980s, for each distillery. The various groups recovered their licenses, but the labels were kept and are today found on the bottles in the Distillery Labels range, the heir of the former “licensed bottlings” of Gordon & MacPhail. These bottlings are of particular historical importance as they often served as semi-official bottlings for distilleries that had previously been overshadowed by the blends they produced malt for.