Gordon & MacPhail is one of Scotland’s pre-eminent independent whisky bottlers, founded in the Speyside town of Elgin in 1895. The company worked hard to forge strong links with local distilleries from the outset, sending their own used wine, port and sherry casks from the wine side of their business to local distilleries to be filled and returned to mature at their warehouses in Elgin.

Meanwhile, co-founder James Gordon developed the whisky side of the business and eventually became a shareholder in several distilleries including Strathisla, Longmorn and Glen Grant. Prior to the outbreak of WWII, with the company now run by John Urquhart and his son George, G&M embarked on a far-sighted policy to stockpile as much inventory as possible, leaving them well-placed in the post-war period when many rivals were struggling with supply.

The vast majority of distilleries did not bottle their own whiskies at the time, and many of those who did had several approved bottlers for their releases. It was common for distilleries such as Macallan to send or approve official labels for favoured bottlers to use themselves, and Gordon & MacPhail were at the forefront of this practice.

Consequently, over the following decades it became commonplace to see Gordon & MacPhail bottlings from several distilleries that used these approved labels. The most frequently bottled examples included Ardmore, Linkwood, Glentauchers, Glenburgie, Strathisla, Glen Grant and Mortlach, though the range also bottled drams from Scapa and Balblair and even some distilleries that were subsequently lost in the big cull of the 1980s, including Dallas Dhu, Glen Albyn, Glen Mhor, Imperial and Inverleven.

The Licensed bottlings from Gordon & MacPhail were a great way for many whisky fans to obtain single malt whiskies from these distilleries and when some of the distilleries in question began releasing their own bottlings, it became clear that several of Gordon & MacPhail’s versions far outclassed the official releases from the same distilleries. To this day, most if not all of the greatest ever single malts from distilleries like Strathisla, Glen Grant and Mortlach have been bottled not by the distilleries themselves but by G&M.

In the 1960s and 1970s the majority of the Licensed Bottlings were released at 70 proof (40%), with some distilleries like Strathisla and Glenlivet frequently released at 100 proof (57.1%) as well.  By the 1980s the higher strengths had become much less common, with the vast majority of expressions bottled at 40%, but in early 2000s the strength of some of the Licensed bottlings began creeping up to 43% and higher strength releases were bottled for export partners overseas. By this time the single malt revival was in full swing and the oldest and rarest casks earmarked for the Licensed Bottlings were spun off into a new prestige range known as Rare Vintage.

In 2018, the Licensed Bottlings were relaunched as the Gordon & MacPhail Distillery Labels collection with a standard strength of 43% and the lovely old distillery labels still faithfully reproduced on a modern bottle. The standard strength was raised to 46% in 2020 to the delight of many whisky fans, bringing this long-running series right up to date in the modern era.