Gordon & MacPhail 'Distillery Labels' Mortlach 15-year-old

The Maker

Gordon & MacPhail are among the oldest and largest independent bottlers in Scotland having been founded in 1895. Like a number of other indi-bottlers their story began as grocers supplying their local area with a range of goods (in this case the Speyside town of Elgin). Long before things like supermarkets and international trade agreements grocers like Gordon & MacPhail were in a powerful position given their established relationships for the purchase and sale of things like wine, spices, and teas from around the world. This effectively gave them a foot in the door when it came to connecting producers with paying customers. As a result, it didn’t take very long for them to see the value in the many surrounding distilleries, nor the distilleries to take an interest in them.

This mutually beneficial relationship matured under the management of Gordon & MacPhail apprentice John Urquhart, who joined the business in 1915. Over the decades John rose up through the company to a position akin to a modern Purchasing Manager and eventually took over the company to the extent that his descendants still control all major roles to this day. During these early years John began experimenting with maturating in his own casks using local whiskies.

Over the subsequent decades and generations the Urquhart family developed John’s ideas and slowly built Gordon & MacPhail into the whisky powerhouse we know it to be today. In that time the company has released a wide number of product ranges from the well regarded ‘Connoisseurs Choice’ in the 1960s through to the Discovery and Distillery Labels ranges that are now common to most whisky shops around the world. In the meantime they have never been shy of a high cost gimmick release. In 2010 they released a 70-year-old Mortlach which was at the time the world’s oldest single malt release. They then followed that up a year later with er 70-year-old Glenlivet. As you can imagine these and other such releases sold for silly amounts of money and now likely sit undrunk in some Hedge Fund Director’s cupboard.

Aside from releasing lots of whisky and ensuring near full Urquhart family employment, Gordon & MacPhail became trailblazers in a different way among indi-bottlers in 1993 when they took control of their own distillery – Benromach. Since its reopening in 1998 Benromach has established itself an increasingly positive reputation and is perhaps part of the reason why every indi-bottler worth their salt these days seems to be setting up their own distillery. Gordon & MacPhail are currently seeking to reproduce this success with yet another distillery. This time built from scratch in the Cairngorms National Park. The Cairn was due to be completed in the next few months, however at the time of writing it’s unclear how much Covid-19 has delayed construction. Either way we can expect to see some output from The Cairn in the second half of this decade.

Turning to this review the bottle in question is from the aforementioned ‘Distillery Label’ series. In a nod to their long history of working with local distilleries, this series sees the release of a range of age statement whiskies made to look like the original label designs agreed over a century ago. It’s not clear how different these actually are from what the labels looked like a century or more ago, but it's something a little different to some of the more modern bottle designs we have become used to. The range of releases (in age and cost) in this series make it hard to discern any wider philosophy beyond celebrating that longstanding link between Gordon & MacPhail and its Speyside neighbours.

The Expression

Mortlach is a very unusual distillery. Famed for being the first legal distillery in Dufftown, Speyside in 1823, it’s perhaps best known now for creating a whisky which is utterly unlike anything else Speyside has come to be known for – in the process earning itself the nickname ‘the Beast of Dufftown’. This uniqueness takes the form of a far more complex texture and savoury flavour which, if you excuse the lack of peat, provides a dram far closer to what you’d expect on Islay than across the Speyside and Highland regions. This makes it a rather difficult distillery to get into at first by the way it challenges your palate in unexpected ways.

If you believe the marketing (and there is an awful lot of marketing out there since Diageo relaunched the brand back in 2014 as Scotch’s ‘Best Kept Secret’ - itself a nod to Mortlach’s niche place among Scotch fans) the reason for this complexity comes from ‘The Way’ devised former owner Dr George Cowie who took control of the distillery back in 1896. Naturally the marketing bumf doesn’t really get into the specifics of this, but in short ‘The Way’ is derived for the distillery's six stills, all of which are a different and unique shape and size – the last of which is called the Wee Witchie that, as you’d expect, is significantly smaller than the previous five. In addition to the stills there’s an intricate copper Worm Tub system which runs outside the distillery to use a nearby waterfall for cooling. All this combines to create a 2.81 distillation process that can’t be found anywhere else.

My own relationship with Mortlach is perhaps as unique as anything in the Diageo marketing plan. One of the people most responsible for my love of whisky was my late brother-in-law who insisted that Mortlach was the best of the best. He always had one on hand to share around at family gatherings. Since his death a few years back my wife and I have decided to keep that tradition going in his memory and we now always have a Mortlach in the collection.

This one was Gordon & MacPhail’s 15-year-old. It’s bottled at 46% (note that there was a previous version of this bottled at 43% which is no longer available), is non-chill filtered and is naturally coloured. No information is given about cask maturation, so while the normal assumption would be ex-bourbon, as you’ll see below, I suspect there’s probably some sherry cask used too. Sherry is known to work particularly well with Mortlach.

Before getting into the tasting notes it’s worth mentioning that there are lots of indi-bottlings of Mortlach out there. That’s in part because they produce a huge amount for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker blends and also in part because the distillery’s own releases have tended to be overpriced and watered down to around 43% (another sad Diageo trademark). As a result, while these indi-bottlings can be a bit hit or miss, they are worth experimenting with instead of the core range - something which is common to its Diageo sister Caol Ila as well.

The Neck Pour

The initial nose is a little like a well doused fruitcake that’s dominated by some very strong citrus notes. Definitely more candied peel than the fresh citrus fruit themselves. There’s also your traditional Mortlach savoury oiliness that always stands out compared to neighbouring distilleries.

But the taste itself, at least right now, is far more disappointing. In making this observation I’m going to make a bit of a contradiction: The spirit seems angry upon opening. There’s a harsh spiciness there. But at the same time it seems a lot weaker than the 46% on the bottle. I note that previous releases were 43% so perhaps there was a recognition from Gordon & MacPhail that this release needed more. For me it’s still not quite there and would benefit for something closer to 50% in future.

Beyond that I have to confess that I’m not getting a huge amount at this phase. And what I am isn’t that enjoyable or noteworthy beyond the above. I get the sense that this is one of those bottles that needs to be left alone for a bit to oxidise. I’ll have to come back to it in a few months.

The Body

I’ve been sipping this over the course of the last four months and by half way down the bottle the difference is like night and day. Perhaps the most drastic change I’ve experienced across one half bottle in a very long time. Now the nose is rich muscovado sugar and savoury meatiness. Lots of oils and leather too.

On the palate that savoury umami remains dominant, but eventually gives out to a sweetness of molasses with hints of vanilla. The initial citrus note has gone into the background. Then comes the oil and a final kick of charred oak and black pepper. Again this is very much like something from Islay, but obviously unpeated.

Final Thoughts

It’s been almost eight months since I first opened this bottle and the change has been astounding. It’s gone from something unremarkable to something I’d strongly recommend. A very pleasant change after working my way through a few rather standard distillery releases.

As the bottle ends the flavour has mellowed out into sweet honey and ginger spice, ending in sort of woody creme-brulee. All very pleasant and worthy of the slightly higher than average bottle RRP of £70. I’ve seen since that if readers wanted to splash out a bit there is now a 25 year-old version on the market at more than double the price of this 15-year-old. It’s tempting, but I have to confess I’m not the kind of drinker who’ll happily pay more than £100 for a bottle. I tend to find that at that level the price is more about scarcity than it is about quality and that £40-£80 is the sweet spot for both.

In sum this bottle delivered on the reputations of both Gordon & MacPhail and Mortlach. If you can still find it, I’d strongly recommend you seeking it out!