Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Pernod Ricard

The first distillery built in the 20th century (1958-1960), Tormore quickly made a name for itself for both its architecture (the distillery's buildings are listed) and its malt born under the shadow of sherry casks, the Tormore 10 Year Old The Pure Highland Malt (80s) and the Tormore 10 Year Old Speyside Malt Scotch Whisky (70s).Nevertheless, it was a distillery designed primarily to produce malt for the blends of its various owners (Long John Distillers, Allied Domecq) known under the names Long John, Ballantine's and Stewart's Cream. Bought by Pernod Ricard in 2005, it would not be until 2014 that bottlings in its own name would really begin to appear, in the form of small batch limited editions aged for 14-16 years in American oak casks.

A Tormore single cask (#1609) distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2011 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. A limited edition of 346 bottles for La Maison du Whisky, a whisky and fine spirits importer and distributor founded by Georges Bénitah in 1956.