Craigellachie was built in 1890 by Charles Doig on behalf of Sir Peter Mackie (White Horse) and Alexander Edward, who wanted to make a more delicate and fruity whisky than those usually found at the time. Edward was also responsible for Aultmore, Dallas Dhu and Benromach. He left the business in 1900 and sold his shares to Mackie, who used Craigellachie for his blends White Horse, Old Smuggler and Old Gaelic. Craigellacie became the property of Distillers Company Limited (Diageo’‘s predecessor), who bought White Horse Distillers in 1927 and then sold the distillery to the Bacardi group in 1998, at the same time as Aberfeldy, Aultmore and Royal Brackla. For a long time remaining in the shadow of the blends it was used in for its fruity, waxy and meaty characteristics, Craigellachie was finally released as a single malt in the 1990s, with appearances in the Flora and Fauna and Rare Malt ranges. Today it has its own line of single malts, launched in 2014 as part of Dewar’‘s Last Great Malts.

A Craigellachie 14 year old distilled in 1971 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail for the Connoisseurs Choice range. 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 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 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.