Aberfeldy was built in 1896 by John Dewar & Sons, the famous company founded by John Dewar, a wine merchant who became a successful blender in the mid-19th century. The logical next step following this success was to begin creating Aberfeldy, which quickly became a key ingredient in the house blend. Dewar’s joined Distillers Company Limited in 1925 and remained part of the group until 1998 when Diageo sold it to Bacardi. The next year, the new owners gave Aberfeldy—whose production had until then been used primarily for the Dewar’s blend—its own brand of single malts, beginning with the launch of a 12 year old.

An Aberfeldy distilled in 1975 and bottled by Speymalt Whisky Distributors, the owner of 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.