Gordon & MacPhail: The Anthropologists of Scotch ‘Preserving’ Single Malt Scotch Whisky For Future Generations

The study of Anthropology focuses on contemporary cultures and their historical origins. Understanding how past customs have impacted the present identity of a culture and transmitting this knowledge to future generations, is a cornerstone to evolution.

The Genealogy of Gordon & MacPhail

Founded by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail in 1895, Gordon & MacPhail was once a local merchant of fine groceries including teas, wines, and whiskies. Their shop serviced the small town of Elgin, located in the northeast of Scotland. Within a year of opening, a young apprentice by the name of John Urquhart joined the company and took particular interest in selecting, purchasing, and maturing local Speyside whiskies to be sold at the shop. By 1915, John Urquhart had been promoted to Senior Partner and assumed company ownership after Gordon’s retirement and MacPhail’s passing. Today, more than a century later, the company continues to 

be owned and operated by the Urquhart family.

Despite the company being passed down generation to generation, Richard Urquhart, Gordon and MacPhail’s Head of Sales (Americas) stresses that positions are not created or simply given to family members. Everyone must go to school to receive professional qualifications, work for another company first, and then participate in a minimum two year training program, before earning a place at Gordon & MacPhail.  “My dad was very clear that there’s no expectations for family members to join the business; it’s always been a personal choice.” notes Urquhart. “We make sure that when family members do join the business, it’s something they’re committed to. We have to look out for the business first, to make sure it’s a good fit.”

Liquid Ethnography

During John Urquhart’s tenure with the company, he sourced whisky to make a house blend, known as the ‘Moray’, however, he also recognized that the company needed additional offerings to stay competitive against the larger blenders. Companies like Chivas, Ballantine’s, and Teacher’s had much larger scale and volume, so Urquhart decided to differentiate by also maturing and bottling stock from single distilleries (which today, we would call a ‘single malt’). Because these bottlings were only using stock from individual distilleries, many granted permission for John to use their house labels stamped with the Gordon & MacPhail name at the bottom.

At the time, this idea of single distillery releases from a licensed bottler was unusual, giving the company and Urquhart family a reputation of being oddballs. The ‘single malt’ category was largely undefined, and certainly not premiumized, thus John’s contemporaries could not comprehend why he wanted to age individual whiskies for longer, while making no additional profits from it. As Richard Urquhart explains, “many would call my grandfather and great grandfather eccentric for their time, but looking back now, they were true pioneers of single malt whisky. This foresight has left Gordon & MacPhail with the oldest, rarest, and largest range of single malts in the world.”

An impressive accomplishment in its own right, the more meaningful implication of Gordon & MacPhail’s longstanding private collection is the liquid ethnography it provides for the Scotch whisky industry. Ethnographic research, in the traditional sense, is a qualitative method for researchers to observe and interact with a study’s participants in a real-life environment. In a lot of ways, that’s what the Urquhart family has done by ingraining itself in the industry. The private collection, which has been sourced over decades from more than 100 distilleries, acts as a time capsule for the Scotch whisky industry, and gives us a better understanding of the way that Scotch has evolved over almost a century.

The Ideology of Scotch

Unlike other independent bottlers, Gordon & MacPhail does not purchase already matured whisky. Instead, they partner with distilleries to fill their own casks and conduct their own maturation, oftentimes in their own warehouses. While this method involves more strategy and futurecasting, it also gives the company “more control over the maturation and consistency with releases,” notes Richard. He proceeds to empha size that this lets the company “know what we have coming up so we can make more proactive choices about what casks we bottle and when.”

In reviewing and testing hundreds, if not thousands of barrels of Scotch, each generation has passed down invaluable learnings about countless distilleries. In Richard’s view, “the most important knowledge that has been passed down is the understanding of each distillery’s character.” While some distilleries make whisky that is full bodied and heavy, others will make a lighter style of spirit. According to Urquhart, “the company will look at the distillery’s unique character and then match it to a cask type and length of maturation to achieve the ideal balance for that whisky.”

Evaluating the distillery’s character, understanding how the casks mature, tracking the rate of loss (angel’s share), anticipating the evolving flavour profile over time, and even tracking market demand are key indicators for deciding when a cask is ready to bottle. In order to stay organized, every cask is mapped out and graded in their warehouses. Then, depending on the age and profile, they are tasted monthly, quarterly, or every few years until they are ready to be bottled.

It is because of this precision, that Gordon & MacPhail decided to restructure their offerings to make it less confusing for both consumers and the company. By 2018 the company had 16 different active ranges of whiskies and determined that they needed to reorganize the way in which the expressions were presented. Their new structure relies on four main categories which highlight dependable, introductory bottles, rare single casks, little known or closed distilleries, and extraordinarily aged one-of-a-kind releases. This newfound ideology on how to showcase Scotch across distilleries, ages, and styles, is paving the way for the industry as a whole.

The Discovery Series is the entry point into their portfolio and is divided into three colour-coded flavour profiles focused on styles aged in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and then smoky/peaty Scotches. In Richard’s view the Discovery series is a “good way for consumers and anyone new to Scotch whisky, who’s unfamiliar with what they like, to try something from each category and then figure out which they prefer. They can then experiment with different ages and distilleries to expand what they know about whisky.” 

The Connoisseurs Choice, on the other hand, features rare single cask, small batch, and cask strength expressions that come from a range of some of the oldest distilleries to some of the newest in Scotland. This category is of particular importance to the company as it was ideated by second generation owner George Urquhart in 1968. Since then, the category has featured more than 2,000 bottlings from almost 100 distilleries. 

For specialty casks that have been ‘greatly aged’ (typically 40 years or more) from celebrated, little known, and/or closed distilleries, the Private Collection offers distinctive, historically significant selections. As a further extension of this, Generations is composed of some of the longest aged single malt Scotches in history. Taking the title of ‘oldest single malt Scotch to ever be bottled’, the Generations 80 Year Old from Glenlivet Distillery, which was released in 2021 for example, is a liquid artifact of which only 250 decanters were bottled from a single cask. To think that Gordon & MacPhail was able to obtain stock from the Glenlivet in 1940, after the distillery’s production levels had dropped by two-thirds due to the Prohibition in the US, the Great Depression, and the ongoing world war at the time, is nothing short of miraculous. Then, to have the foresight to rest the cask for 80 years, preserving a piece of liquid history for generations to come must have taken prophetic intuition.

Preserving the Past While Preparing for the Future

Although Gordon & MacPhail possesses stock from countless distilleries, they have seen a decline in the number of fillings that they receive while also experiencing an increased demand for product from consumers. As a countermeasure to the waning supply, the company acquired Benromach in 1993. Mothballed for close to a decade, Gordon & MacPhail chose to revitalize the house character of Benromach, imploring a more traditional style of Speyside whisky that is fruity, balanced, and possesses a hint of smoke. In addition, the company recently constructed a brand new distillery named The Cairn, which opened in May 2022. This Speyside distillery will have a house style opposite to that of Benromach. Unpeated, oily, and heavier in weight, The Cairn will be creating a more modern single malt made for tomorrow.

In Richard Urquhart’s view, starting their company today would be very challenging as there is significant capital required to build the infrastructure, fill casks, and then potentially not make revenue from the casks for a decade or more. Urquhart emphasizes that “we’re incredibly fortunate to have the foresight and belief from the generations before us, but with that we have the responsibility to keep investing so that future generations have the same access to casks that we have.” 

Despite Urquhart’s mindfulness of future generations, at the heart of Gordon & MacPhail’s identity are single malts that have been produced in a traditional manner employing traditional casks such as ex-bourbon and sherry. But there’s something to be said about the preservation of longstanding traditions and Gordon & MacPhail is preserving the identity of the category of single malt Scotch for the long haul. 

While we may not see a tequila-barrel aged single malt release or a bottling that’s been aged in space from them anytime soon, perhaps a century-old liquid antiquity is just around the corner.