Gordon & MacPhail’s Glorious Glenlivet

Gordon & MacPhail was established in May 1895 by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail on South Street, Elgin as a grocers and wine merchant. Within a year of establishment, John Urquhart joined the company to assist in the selection of casks and with the creation of blended whiskies.

In 1915 John Alexander MacPhail retired, and James Gordon passed away, resulting in John Urquhart becoming senior director of the company.

 

 

To this day, Gordon & MacPhail is controlled by the Urquhart family, and still trades out of the South Street store in Elgin, also acquired the Benromach distillery in 1993, and work began this year on their brand new Cairn Distillery which is due to open in Spring 2022, whilst bottling other whiskies under various different labelling’s.

 

 

To celebrate 4 generations of the Urquhart’s stewardship of the company, Gordon & MacPhail released a collection of whiskies, known as the ‘Generations’. Lot 1437 is the first release from this series.

The Glenlivet 1940 was distilled on 3 February, and filled into cask number 339 by the aforementioned John Urquhart. The cask was then left to slumber at the distillery until 10 January 1980 when it was then transferred to Gordon & MacPhail’s own bonded warehouse. 

The 70 year old spirit was bottled on 7 September 2010 into 100 beautiful hand-blown decanters with sterling silver caps and bases. This spectacular decanter is number 19, and is estimated to sell for £15,000-£20,000.

 

Click here to view the full auction catalogue. >>

Graeme Maxwell

 

McTear’s sells more whisky than any other traditional auction house in the dedicated whisky auctions that take place monthly, run concurrently live online on a platform that attracts six million visitors annually from over 120 countries worldwide.

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