Scotland, Speyside. Distillery dismantled.

Like the Glenburgie distillery, and under the aegis of the Canadian company Hiram Walk, Miltonduff was equipped with a pair of Lomond stills in 1964. 17 years later (1981), in the midst of economic crisis, the stills were removed, bringing the existence of Mosstowie to a premature end. Designed to increase the choice available to master blenders without having to build new distilleries, this type of practice fizzled out due to the economic climate and the difficulties associated with maintaining this type of equipment. The single malts were bottled primarily by independent bottlers, the oldest and rarest versions in Italy (Sestante), the vintages 1970, 1975 and 1979 by Gordon & MacPhail, and the 1973, 1978 and 1979 versions by Signatory Vintage.

A Miltonduff distilled in 1969 and bottled in 2010 by Gordon & MacPhail, one of Scotland’’s oldest independent bottlers. Gordon & MacPhail 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 whiskies.