Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection Lochside 1981 (40YO) 49.2% 700ml

Passion for single malt Scotch whisky has been at the heart of Gordon & MacPhail's family business for four generations. This range is an ever-changing collection of unique perspectives on distilleries’ own bottlings, non-chill-filtered single cask and small batch expressions bottled at cask strength and exceptional one-offs. For the malt whisky explorer, it promises a journey of discovery through different flavours, finishes, strengths and vintages. Lochside was a brewery from 1786 until its closure in 1957. It incorporated a white tower – a classic German Brauhaus design – that was reinterpreted by Charles Doig in 1899. The site was then bought by Joseph Hobbs (who owned Ben Nevis distillery) and he set about installing a Coffey still, swiftly followed by four pot stills in 1961. His son, Joe Junior, retained ownership until 1973 when Spanish distiller Destilerias y Crianzas [DyC] bought it as a source for some of the malt it used in its top-selling DYC blend. The Coffey still was decommissioned and the distillery ran until the early 1990s when DYC [by then part of Sherry and wine firm Pedro Domecq] was itself taken over by Allied Distillers. Lochside was considered surplus to requirements by its new parent, it was closed and sold to developers before being demolished in 2005.