Cuvée presentation
A single cask (#121) Benriach distilled in 2005 and bottled in 2023 by the independent bottlers Gordon & MacPhail, which was founded in Elgin in 1895 by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail. At the time, it was a delicatessen and wine merchant. In 1915 John Alexander MacPhail retired, and a new partner joined: John Urquhart. His son George joined the business in 1933, a few years after the death of James Gordon in a car accident. They worked with several major distilleries from Speyside, where they amassed considerable stocks. Gordon & MacPhail was also licensed to bottle whiskies for distilleries such as Glen Grant, Linkwood, Mortlach, Macallan and Glenlivet. The business flourished in the 1970s with distributors in several countries, as well as with the sales of casks to several Italian bottlers in selections that would become legendary. Today, Gordon & MacPhail is still run by the Urquhart family in its original building and is one of the most iconic bottlers in the industry with an abundance of whiskies – some of which are very old and extremely rare. Gordon & MacPhail is in total control of the entire maturation process. They have also owned the Benromach distillery since 1993. A limited edition of 207 bottles.
The distillery Benriach
Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Brown Forman
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Benriach is a distillery that has reopened on more than one occasion. The first was in 1898 at the initiative of John Duff, who built the distillery before, just ten years later, being forced to close it down following the Pattison Crash. The second was in 1965 at the instigation of Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd (the future Chivas Bothers), who completely rebuilt the distillery in order to produce a “blender's malt”. Finally, in 29 April 2004, the distillery came into the hands of Billy Walker and his South-African partners and began operating again in September of the same year. In the meantime, only a few independent bottlers, including Gordon & MacPhail, released expressions of the Benriach malt. When it comes to in-house expressions, a 10 year old version was released by the Seagram Group in 1994. Despite its 120 years of history, Benriach is a distillery only now coming to the foreground of collectable whiskies, and connoisseurs are no longer under any allusions as to its worth. The now-frequent single cask vintages are immediately seized upon as soon as they released.
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