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This years
annual Vintages/LCBO sponsored "An
Evening of Scottish Virtuosity" event in
Toronto, Canada saw Gordon & MacPhail
present some very rare premium whiskies
from their extensive range, our guest
writer, Murray Cohen, a Member of the
International Order of the Companions of
the Quaich and Scotch Malt Whisky Forum
Member was their to review the event and
of course, the whiskies.
On Monday January 16 I had the
pleasure to attend "An Evening of
Scottish Virtuosity", a yearly special
event sponsored by Vintages/LCBO, which was once again hosted at the
prestigious National Club in downtown
Toronto, Bay Street, a venue couched in
Canadian history. The evening comprised
of both cocktails and a fine buffet
featuring hip of beef and salt encrusted
baked salmon before the main tasting
presentations.
The spotlight of the evening shone on
Gordon & MacPhail whiskies including
their independent bottlings as well as
an expression from their Benromach
distillery. Nine single malts
were presented covering the continuum from
mid-range to super-premium whiskies
including some true gems, remarkable for
their extreme maturity and rarity, some were from
silent distilleries.
The hosts for the evening were Richard
Urquhart, a fourth generation family
owner of G&M and Bill Somerville, a G&M
Ambassador. Richard delved into the
history of the family business, he told
of how it started on May 24, 1895 in
Elgin, Speyside as G&M Family Grocers and
Whisky Blends. Richard’s
great-grandfather John was fourteen
years old when he started working there
and by 1915, he was the sole owner.
Richard showed old photographs in which
his great-grandfather posed with others
in front of the shop always with two
bicycles in front of them. The reason
was that John usually lost one bike so
he needed a back-up. Richard’s
grandfather Michael Jackson took over in
1933. G&M is still family owned and
operated with a group of relatives
including Richard’s twin brother.
Richard himself is quite a dynamic
individual having sailed 40,000 square
miles from South Africa to Australia.
G&M’s house blend was discontinued in
1915 and the company was and is a
licensed bottler for many distilleries.
There are currently 8000 casks maturing in their
warehouse in Elgin. G&M has ten
different brands with 350 different
whisky expressions. The family bought
Benromach Distillery in 1993 which at
that point was just buildings and water
source so they had a blind canvass to
build upon with their own creativity. It
is now a going concern.
One does not often encounter so very
many single malts in a single evening,
below are links to my reviews of all
nine of the single malts presented
during "An Evening of Scottish
Virtuosity 2017" and as always including
my comments and of course scores.
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