Glenrothes 23 Year Old & North of Scotland 47 Year Old Stillwater 2 x 50cl

Earmarked from an early stage an an ideal component in blended Scotch whiskies, Glenrothes has long been a key component of big brands such as Cutty Sark and Famous Grouse. Its relationship with the former, lead to a two decade-long association with London wine-merchants, Berry Brother's & Rudd. They began to promote the single malt as well, introducing vintage releases like this one. The Glenrothes "brand" was eventually returned to distillery owners, Edrington, in 2017.

North of Scotland began production in 1958, and was the first venture from George P. Christie, who later opened the Speyside distillery as well. North of Scotland originally distilled malt whisky as well, known as Strathmore, but its pot still were removed after just one year to focus on its grain production. Sadly the distillery was short-lived, shut down by Christie in 1980 in anticipation of the era of oversupply, also referred to as the "whisky loch." The site was sold to DCL in 1982 and is nowadays used as a bond and warehousing operation by Diageo. Primarily tasked with provision for blends, there are very few releases of North of Scotland grain. An official 50 year old was bottled in 2017 in partnership with Elixir Distillers, but the majority of independent bottlings are from independent labels like this.

• Glenrothes 1997 Stillwater 23 Year Old 50cl 54.8% One of 250 bottles.
• North of Scotland 1972 Stillwater 47 Year Old 50cl 41.1% One of 387 bottles.