Scozia, Speyside. Distilleria in produzione. Proprietari: Chivas Brothers Ltd, Pernod Ricard.

Single malt di punta del gruppo Chivas Brothers, The Glenlivet trovò ampia diffusione sulla scena internazionale e divenne uno dei malti scozzesi più amati del mondo agli inizi degli anni ‘50. I suoi proprietari fecero un lavoro notevole, proponendo diverse età di The Glenlivet (12, 15, 18 e 21 anni) a partire dagli anni ‘60. Poi alla fine degli anni ‘70 introdussero delle superbe versioni millesimate, 1959 o 1961, accanto al famoso 12 anni, per poi iniziare il nuovo millennio con una straordinaria gamma adattata ai gusti contemporanei: la Glenlivet Cellar Collection. Per quanto riguarda l’attività di négoce, fu sotto l’etichetta multicolore “Glenlivet Whisky, George & JG Smith” (omaggio al fondatore della distilleria e vulcanico protagonista dell’industria del whisky del XIX secolo), che i negozianti imbottigliarono Glenlivet, tra cui Gordon & MacPhail, che ancora una volta si distinse con edizioni decisamente marcate dallo sherry.

This 50 year old Glenlivet was distilled in 1948 and bottled by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, a company originally 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 grocery 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 worked with many of Speyside’s leading distilleries, from whom it accumulated considerable stocks. It was 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. Gordon & MacPhail has also owned the Benromach distillery since 1993. The Book of Kells range—named after the famous medieval manuscript kept in the library of Trinity College Dublin—features some of Gordon & MacPhail’s most prestigious bottlings.