G&M 125th Anniversary Glenury Royal 1984

Tasting Notes

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Stewed fruit aromas and soft notes of polish give way to cocoa powder. Cinnamon spice comes to the fore alongside tart plum skin, treacle and subtle traces of toasted oak.

Taste: Sweet and drying with fresh cherry and orange peel flavours. Burnt sugar and notes of dried fig develop accompanied by blackcurrant and fresh coffee grounds.

Finish: Medium and fruity with lingering aniseed and sherry influences on the finish.

89pts Serge @ Whisky Fun

"A recent bottling from G&M’s old stock. With these rare old casks and since Glenury used to be a staple malt at G&M’s in the old days, you cannot help wondering why they never bottled it before. I mean, was that because they had decided to keep it for a special occasion, or because they had discarded it? In any case, it’s said to be the house’s very last Glenury, while it had been distilled just one year before the distillery was shut down for good, in 1985. Colour: deep gold to amber. Nose: starts with butterscotch and cognac but it’s soon to get much more sherried, while that would rather be ‘cream’, so a blend of oloroso and PX. Big feeling of burnt cake, sticky toffee pudding, honey-glazed pecans, chestnut honey (huuuuge), sultanas, earth and tobacco, and more generally, brandy de Jerez, really. After a good few minutes you’d almost believe you’re nosing some old Malaga, but that’s close to sherry indeed. Fantastic rich, thick and heavy – if not heady - nose. Mouth: much less well-polished on the palate, much drier, spicier, grittier, and simply drying. Bitter herbs and walnuts from the year before the year before last year, terpenes, pine sap, our friends the artichokes and Brussels sprouts, some black tobacco, and more and more salt, as in if we were having some kind of cold beef broth. Bitter coffee. Finish: long and really very herbal, with very old walnuts and bitter molasses running the whole show until the end of the aftertaste. Comments: this is almost like playing an old 78rpm on a gramophone, with cracks, rumble and creaking. A tad challenging but charming. The nose was simply out of this world. SGP:571 - 89 points (I agree with Angus)."

89pts Angus @ Whisky Fun

"While it is wonderful that many newer and smaller indy bottlers are able to issue casks from closed distilleries still, its unquestionably Gordon & MacPhail who remain the kings of this kind of latter day lost distillery release. This quartet of bottlings for their 125th anniversary have been causing some chatter so far this year, but let’s taste rather than chat (what?!) This Glenury hails from the penultimate year of the distillery’s production. Colour: amber. Nose: deep, unctuous and wonderfully earthy sherry that also expressed many dense and sticky dark fruits. Plums drizzled with old balsamic, raspberry wine, green walnut liqueur, Irish coffee and this very particular kind of leathery, almost tarry, rancio. The kind of aroma that just seems to grow in complexity and keeps evolving in simultaneous directions. Now showing gamier sides and hints of very old Burgundian pinot noir. I believe ‘sumptuous’ is the word. Mouth: rich and deeply earthy, bitterly herbal and peppery. More gamey and leather notes and a very assertive bitterness that could arguably be too much. Cured meats, natural tar extracts, black pepper, strong back tea and some high-cocoa content dark chocolate. The meaty and bitter herbal qualities tend to dominate here; you get the sense of the cask closing in and a whisky left raging against the dying of the light. Finish: long, bitter, rancio, herbal, punchy tobacco notes, fruity black coffee and bitter cocoa powder. More gamey and animalistic cured meat tones in the aftertaste. Comments: this kind of meatiness is a rather divisive style I find, however, personally I rather find the bitter aspects on the palate more problematic. But this really is nit-picking. Like so many older drams, the nose was a 93 point sensation, whereas the palate was slightly more disjointed by age. But fans of dark and dusky old sherry bombs will undeniably require spare trousers and an armchair… SGP: 572 - 89 points

Independent Bottler

Adapted from an article written for Celtic Life Magazine by Andrew Ferguson:

In 1895 James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail opened a grocery business in the City of Elgin, the heart of Scotland’s Speyside whisky region. The business sold groceries, tea, coffee and wines from all over the world. 125 years later, Gordon & MacPhail still operates the grocery business in Elgin, but its real enterprise is as an Independent Bottler and Distiller of Scotch Whisky.

In the early years of the business Gordon and MacPhail brought in a young John Urquhart as apprentice. Urquhart had a knack for selecting and blending whiskies from local distilleries. He also began brokering casks and independently bottling single malt from famous distilleries like Glenlivet, Mortlach and Glen Grant. The practice of filling casks of new make whisky, rather than simply purchasing mature casks began at this time. This is something which sets Gordon MacPhail apart from almost all other independent bottlers to this day, and it gave them a leg up through leaner years. In 1915 John Urquhart was made senior partner, and though the firm would keep its name, from this point on it would remain privately owned by the Urquhart family.

In 1933 George Urquhart, aka “Mr. George”, joined his father in the business. He was heavily involved in the firm’s whisky business, travelling widely to showcase Gordon & MacPhail whiskies. G&M’s business thrived during and after World War II. Having had the foresight to lay down large numbers of casks in the 1930s and early 1940s, they were in a strong position to meet demand, especially in America. This was a difficult time for most of the industry with barley rationing dramatically reducing distilling.

In 1968, under George Urquhart’s leadership, Gordon & MacPhail launched the Connoisseurs Choice range. At a time when few distilleries were bottling their own whisky as single malt (rather producing it for use in Blended Scotch whiskies), Gordon & MacPhail began marketing single malts from distilleries across Scotland. The range is still being bottled today.

The third generation began entering the business with George’s son Ian Urquhart in 1967. He was joined by David Urquhart in 1972, as well as Michael Urquhart and Rosemary Rankin in 1981. The family firm continued to thrive even during the industry downturn of the 1980s and ear 90’s, emerging as the undisputed preeminent independent bottler of Scotch whisky. In the 2010s the torch was passed to the 4th generation, with at least five of John Urquhart’s descendants now involved in the business.

It had always been John Urquhart’s vision for the family to own a distillery of its own. The dream was finally realized in 1993 with the acquisition of the closed Benromach Distillery in the nearby town of Forres. The distillery was in rough shape, and it took nearly 5 years to get it up and running. HRH Prince Charles was on hand in 1998 for its official reopening. Never content to rest on their laurels, the firm announced plans in 2019 to open a brand-new distillery in the Cairngorms National Park. The Cairn Distillery is scheduled to open in 2022.

One of the most remarkable things about Gordon & MacPhail is the vision it had to mature whiskies to great ages. Few other whisky firms, whether distilleries or independent bottlers, have ever had the foresight to mature casks for more than 30 or 40 years. In 2010 G&M bottled the Generations Mortlach 70 Years Old, which was the oldest whisky ever bottled at the time. They followed up on that milestone by bottling 70-year-old Glenlivet in both 2011 and 2012. And then in 2015 they once again they raised the bar by bottling the Generations Mortlach 75 Year. Of the 10 oldest whiskies ever bottled, all but 2 have been bottled by G&M.

It is almost certain that Gordon MacPhail will one day bottle the first ever one-hundred-year-old whisky, but that may still be a couple of decades away. Their oldest maturing stocks are from the late 1930s and early 1940s. A number of these casks, 15 First Fill Sherry Butts to be precise, were filled for Gordon & MacPhail at the Glenlivet Distillery on February 3rd, 1940. Most of these casks have been bottled over the decades, but G&M dipped into another of these casks this year to bottle another whisky. The Generations Glenlivet 80 Year, once more the oldest bottle of Scotch Whisky ever bottled. It isn’t inexpensive, but I can vouch for it in one regard… it doesn’t disappoint!

Gordon & MacPhail whiskies can be found all over the world with whiskies ranging from under $100 to $100,000.00 or more. Their grocery shop in Elgin is the brand's spiritual home, with a section dedicated to Scotch Whisky that showcases more than 1000 bottles. Prior to Covid-19 the shop offered both tastings and in-store sampling. As does their nearby Benromach Distillery in Forres, one of the smallest and most traditional distilleries in the Speyside.