Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Chivas Brothers, Pernod Ricard

A blender's malt par excellence, Longmorn is considered a “Top Malt” in the Scotch whisky industry. This title, shared by just a dozen of the hundreds of distilleries spread across the Highlands including Macallan, enabled it to survive the difficulties of the 20th century in the shadow of Chivas Regal. For a long time limited to just two expressions, Longmorn 10 Year Old and Longmorn 15 Year Old, it would not be until the 21st century (2004) that its owners recognized its right to exist on the international scene as a single malt and equipped it with its own special bottlings. In the meantime, independent bottlers took to the malt. Making sherry-cask maturation its trademark, Gordon & MacPhail gave it an identity revered by and renowned amongst enthusiasts and collectors.

A Longmorn single cask (#1088) distilled in 1972 and bottled in 2006 by Gordon & MacPhail, one of Scotland’’s oldest independent bottlers. Gordon & MacPhail 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 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 whiskies.