Gordon & MacPhail unveils Mortlach 75 Years Old

Gordon & MacPhail has released a new £20,000 75-year-old Mortlach single malt Scotch whisky that was first put into casks at the start of World War Two.

Just 100 bottles of Mortlach 75 Years Old will be launched globally at an RRP of £20,000

Unveiled today (Wednesday 2 September) at the Royal Opera House in London, just 100 bottles of Mortlach 75 Years Old by Gordon & MacPhail will be made available globally.

The new edition is the most recent offering in the firm’s Generations range, and is described as the “world’s most exclusive whisky”.

“We’ve been anticipating this moment for a long time,” said Stephen Rankin, great grandson of John Urquhart. “Having been nurtured and cared for by four generations of our family it gives us great pleasure to release this unique and incredibly rare single malt.

“Our family has been immersed in the whisky industry for more than 100 years and we’ve built up an expertise and knowledge, handed down from generation to generation.”

On 17 November 1939, John Urquhart – first generation of the family to work at Gordon & MacPhail – gave orders for new make spirit to be poured into first-fill Sherry butt cask number 2475.

Mortlach 75 Years Old is said to offer notes of dried apricots and pomegranate, which lead to hints of spice and vanilla completed by a “lingering smoky finish”.

The expression is bottled in a teardrop-shaped decanter, typical of the Generations range.

Each bottle is numbered and handcrafted with 75 multilevel “cuts” to represent each year of the whisky’s maturation, and packaged in Aniline leather travel bag with a specially commissioned book by whisky writer Charles Maclean, international best-selling author, Alexander McCall Smith.

Mortlach 80-year-old

The book depicts stories of Scotland, whisky and those involved with the 75yo release in addition to illustrations by up and coming Scottish artists.

Mortlach 75 Years Old by Gordon & Macphail has an abv of 44%, and 12 of the 100 bottlings will be allocated to the UK.

Ian Urquhart, retired former managing director at Gordon & MacPhail, said: “This whisky is just so fascinating – I want people to drink it.

“Leaving the whisky to age for so long is a risk – it’s a living experiment. Thankfully that experiment worked and here we are today.”

Asked whether consumers could expect to see an 80-year-old expression in the future, Uquhart gave away no clues insisting he “really doesn’t know”.