Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Beam - Suntory

Somewhat unusually for the Scotch whisky industry, the Ardmore distillery was built entirely by the William Teachers & Son blending company in 1897 in order to create a supply of malt for its blended scotches, including Teacher's Highland Cream, which was released in 1884. Ardmore remained in the family fold until 1976, when it was bought by the Allied Breweries Group, and then Allied Domecq. Founded on this unusual heritage, the distillery continued to maintain its singularity for some time. It produced a partly peated malt (10-15 ppm) and used direct-fired stills until 2001 (a method abandoned by almost all distilleries in the 60s and 70s). These distinctive traits helped build its unique character and would grant it a special place in the family of Speyside malts. Ardmore owes its renown, however, not just to its individuality but also to independent bottlers who, from an early stage, took the malt in hand and introduced it to enthusiasts. With distillery versions almost non-existent, two versions of Ardmore are particularly prized, the Ardmore 16 Year Old Pure Malt Whisky (70s) and the Ardmore 15 Year Old Pure Malt Whisky (80s).

An Ardmore single cask (#900670) distilled in 1997 and bottled in 2019 by Gordon & MacPhail for the Connoisseurs Choice range. Matured for 21 years in a refill American oak hogshead. Gordon & MacPhail is one of Scotland’’s oldest independent bottlers. It 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 accident. 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 and rare whiskies. The company is in complete control of the entire maturation process. The Connoisseurs Choice range is one of Gordon & MacPhail’’s spearhead collections. Created for the Italian collector and importer Edoardo Giaccone in the early 1970s, it became part of the permanent range in 1979 and has remained so ever since, despite changing greatly, from red and black labels to map labels and today’’s design, as well as the gradient label. Older editions were bottled at 40% and coloured artificially. Today, the whiskies in the range display their natural colouring and are often cask strength. A limited edition of 248 bottles.