Gordon & MacPhail’s bottling of Balblair 1973 has been awarded the ‘Best Sherry Cask’ award in the ‘Premium’ category in the annual Malt Maniacs Awards.  Bottled under Gordon & MacPhail’s Private Collection label the product was also awarded Gold, scoring 91 points out of 100.  Only 385 bottles have been released for sale.

Gordon & MacPhail (G&M) has long established relationships with distillery owners throughout the country.  This allows G&M to send oak casks to the majority of Scotland’s working distilleries to be filled with ‘new make’ spirit, which then mature for many years at the distillery of origin or in our bonded warehouses in Elgin. The oak casks are carefully stowed and regularly checked until they finally achieve the highest quality standards.   Only then are they bottled and presented for sale.  It’s a patient business, some casks reach over 60 years of age and some have outlived the distillery that produced them.

Michael Urquhart, Joint Managing Director of Gordon & MacPhail says, “Our policy has always been to send our casks directly to each distillery.  This ensures that high quality ‘new make’ spirit is filled in the highest quality, hand selected casks.  Winning this award plays testament to this approach. The award acknowledges that through careful cask selection and patience we have bottled and outstanding whisky many years after it was first distilled.”