Historic family-owned Scotch whisky bottling company Gordon & MacPhail will cease operating as an independent bottler for outside distilleries, according to The Herald. The 128-year-old company has announced it will now exclusively focus on producing and bottling whisky from the two distilleries that it owns.
As Scotland’s oldest independent bottler, Gordon & MacPhail has filled casks with distillate from 100 different distilleries, cementing itself as an essential part of the Scotch whisky industry. Gordon & MacPhail ventured into the distilling side of the business in 1933 when it acquired the Benromach Distillery in Forres. More recently, it constructed its own distillery, The Cairn, which opened in Cairngorm National Park in 2022. To focus on the growing supply of single malt whisky from its own distilleries, the company will no longer fill casks with spirits from outside brands from 2024 on.
Gordon & MacPhail managing director Ewen Mackintosh told The Herald that the company’s goal was always to “complement and not compete” in the Scotch whisky market, which became increasingly difficult as distilleries were looking to release more expressions of their single malts. Looking to the future, Mackintosh described the decision as a “natural evolution” for the brand.
“It allows us to really focus on the story of Gordon & MacPhail, on that exclusive rarity and exclusive mantra which has been a real aspect of Gordon & MacPhail whiskies for a number of years now, with some of these very exclusive bottlings we have offered such as the 80-year-old.”
While this decision does have a large impact on Scotch production, the changes resulting from this switch over will be rolled out over the next 10 to 15 years. Even though Gordon & MacPhail will stop taking in new liquids from distilleries this year, the existing aging distillates will continue to be released under the Gordon & MacPhail range. As the whiskies finish aging and are bottled, they will slowly be released over several years until the stock is gone.
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