The Coleburn distillery was founded in Longmorn by John Robertson & Son in 1897, in the final years of the whisky boom. It was sold in 1915 to the Clynelish Distillery Company, owned by John Risk, John Walker & Sons and Distillers Company Limited (DCL). DCL bought Risk’‘s shares and made Colebrn part of its Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) subsidiary, giving the license to J&G Stewart. Its whisky was then used for the blends Usher’‘s and Johnnie Walker Red Label. The distillery closed in 1985 in the midst of the Whisky Loch crisis, a victim of its archaic equipment. The site was bought by Aceo, who use the warehouses for its independent bottler Murray McDavid. Coleburn bottlings are found in the Rare Malts range and from independent bottlers.

A 17 year old Coleburn distilled in 1968 and bottled in 1985 by Cadenhead. Cadenhead was founded in 1842 by George Duncan, who was quickly joined by William Cadenhead who renamed the business after Duncan’’s death in 1858. When Cadenhead in turn passed away in 1904, his nephew Robert Duthie took over and turned the business into the independent bottler it is today. After Duthie, it was managed by one of his employees, Ann Olivier, whose stubborn approach to running the business led to much of the stock having to be sold at auction by Christie’’s (London) in 1972 to feed the kitty and save the business. It was then sold to J. & A. Mitchell and Co, who also owned Springbank, and moved to Campbeltown. The Cadenhead “dumpy” bottles were a spearhead for the business between the late 1970s and early 1990s. There were almost 400 in total, covering most of Scotland’’s distilleries. The whiskies were bottled at 46% initially, and then at cask strength from 1989, paving the way for the Authentic Collection.