Gordon & MacPhail Unveils Fourth Expression in Mr. George Legacy Series
Gordon & MacPhail released a 65-year-old scotch whisky in April, marking the fourth expression in its series celebrating George Urquhart. 360 bottles of this whisky are available.
Urquhart’s favorite first-fill sherry butt – cask no. 3818 – was crafted specifically for the whisky and matured for over six decades before being bottled at 56.5% ABV in November 2023.
According to whisky writer Charlie MacLean, Urquhart was the “father of single malt whisky.” Urquhart, who passed away in 2001, was an important figure in the scotch industry.
Gordon & MacPhail Unveils Fourth Expression in Mr. George Legacy Series
“This is an exceptionally fine old whisky, hugely complex, but still remarkably vivacious,” MacLean said in a news release. “Another worthy tribute to Mr George Urquhart, the man who put malt whisky on the map.”
The spirit is described as robustly bodied, with a sweetly spicy nose. The pour is described as having notes of coffee bean, dark cherry, orange peel, before transitioning to a smoky finish.\
In a statement released by Gordon & MacPhail, Stuart Urquhart, the grandson of George Urquhart, expressed his thoughts on this personal release:
“Back in the 1950s, the spirit would have been slightly smoky due to floor maltings and a small level of peat being used, which is a style rarely seen in today’s modern Speyside whiskies, giving this whisky a charred oakiness, balanced by a long-term maturation in a Sherry cask made of European oak.”
As a result of his innovations at Gordon & MacPhail, Mr George had quite a significant impact on the scotch whisky industry as a whole. He created the brand’s Connoisseurs Choice range in 1968, which was subversive back then. The latest Gordon & MacPhail bottling bears a single oak tree in tribute to Mr. George.
Gordon & MacPhail is an independent bottler and distiller of Scotch Whisky, founded in 1895 in Elgin, a city in the north-east region of Scotland. It is an Urquhart family-owned business. Gordon & MacPhail is the trading name of Speymalt Whisky Distributors Ltd.
