1978 Gordon & Macphail Rare Old Brora Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

One of the great mothballed Scottish distilleries few will be fortunate enough to try.

The distillery now known as Brora started life in 1819 when it was founded by the Marquis of Stafford, later known as the Duke of Sutherland. The distillery was originally founded as Clynelish, however during the subsequent recovery after the first world war, demand from blenders for Clynelish malt was extremely high, so to increase capacity DCL (Distillers Company Limited) built a new distillery adjacent to the existing one in 1967-68. This distillery was also called Clynelish, as the company wished to trade on the existing good name of the old distillery.

The original distillery ran in tandem with the new distillery under the names of Clynelish A and Clynelish B (sources disagree over which was the new distillery and which the original Clynelish) during 1968/9. Predictably, this arrangement was not to the liking of the Customs & Excise folk and the SWA due to the dissimilarity between the types of whisky being produced at the two distilleries. The original distillery was closed down in 1969 and then reopened bearing the name Brora. It then operated intermittently, producing heavily peated (around 40ppm) whisky for blending purposes.

The late Seventies and early Eighties saw another big slump in the industry, and with the parent company DCL needing to cut back on production, in 1983 the decision was taken to mothball Brora (along with many other distilleries, few of which have operated since). Sadly, all attempts to revive Brora have thus far met with no success.

Despite all this, the reputation of the malt produced at Brora between 1969 and 1983 has gone from to strength to strength, with sought-after bottlings now changing hands for hundreds of pounds.

If there is to be no more Brora (and it now seems almost certain that there won't be) it will be a terrible shame, but there are still bottlings available. What is beyond doubt is that this will be a whisky aficionados will still be talking about decades after the last bottle is finally drunk. - Notes partially sourced from the whisky exchange.

This 1978 distillation from Gordon and Macphail was bottled in 2013 under its Rare Old series.  Only a handful of bottles were imported into Australia.  Extremely Limited.

No tasting notes available...