Gordon & MacPhail unveils 75-year-old whisky with a £20,000 price ticket

By Nigel Huddleston

Published: 03 September, 2015

Whisky supplier and retailer Gordon & MacPhail has launched what it believes to be the world's "most exclusive" single malt Scotch whisky.

Mortlach 75 Years Old by Gordon & MacPhail comes in a limited edition of 100 decanters with an rrp of a cool £20,000.

It is the latest release in the family-owned firm's Generations range.

John Urquhart - of the first generation of his family involved in the business that was founded in 1895 - oversaw the filling of a first-fill sherry cask with spirit from Speyside's Mortlach distillery in 1939, soon after the outbreak of World War II.

His great grandson Stephen Rankin said: "We've been anticipating this moment for a long time.

"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 one hundred years and we've built up an expertise and knowledge, handed down from generation to generation."

Whisky writer Charles MacLean added: "Gordon & MacPhail is one of the few, if not the only, company in the world who could have produced this rarest of whiskies.

"Generations of the Urquhart family have taken a long term view to maturing Scotch whisky, guided by a simple family saying: the future is shaped by what we do today; today reveals what we did in the past.

"This philosophy has enabled the current generation to unveil this exquisite whisky."

The whisky is packaged in a teardrop-shaped crystal decanter with 75 cuts to represent the years of its maturation.

Bottles come in a leather travel bag with a specially-commissioned book by MacLean and novelist Alexander McCall Smith, who both attended the whisky's launch at the Royal Opera House in London.

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