Independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail (G&M) has released two new single cask bottlings from its Private Collection series, a 33-year-old Inverleven and 44-year-old Glenrothes, in redesigned bottles and packaging.
The Inverleven single malt was filled into a refill Bourbon barrel, labelled cask #562, for Gordon & MacPhail in 1985, six years before the Lowland distillery was mothballed.
Priced at £1,000 and limited to 130 bottles, the whisky is bottled at a cask strength of 57.4% abv and is said to possess ‘intense tropical fruit aromas’ on the nose and ‘sweet flambéed banana’ on the palate.
The Glenrothes single malt was filled into a refill Sherry puncheon, labelled cask #18440, for Gordon & MacPhail in 1974.
Bottled at 49.5% abv and limited to 276 bottles, the whisky is priced at £1,250 and is said to carry ‘complex aromas of Sherry soaked fruitcake’ on the nose and ‘fruit and nut chocolate with hints of raisin’ on the palate.
The new packaging for the Private Collection range includes a heavyweight bottle with vertical ridges, presented in a veneered wooden gift box.
Future Private Collection releases ‘to be revealed in coming months’ will adopt this new style of packaging, the company said.
The redesign is the latest alteration in a year of change for G&M, after it streamlined its portfolio of products in April from 16 different ranges down to five in order to stop consumers ‘getting lost’.
