Scottish independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail has unveiled its Connoisseurs Choice Heritage collection, reinvigorating an historic range that gave many whisky drinkers their first taste of single malt Scotch.
The original Connoisseurs Choice label was launched in the 1960s by company patriarch George Urquhart, referred to by whisky writer Charles MacLean as “the father of single malt”. In a market where blends were still king, for both producers and consumers, Connoisseurs Choice flew the flag for single malt Scotch whiskies and served as a showcase for their variety and quality.
Through the new Connoisseurs Choice Heritage collection Gordon & MacPhail is preserving the spirit of the original range, introducing whisky enthusiasts to single malts from distilleries that seldom release them or to new presentations of their liquids.
The collection’s inaugural release is a 56-year-old single malt Scotch whisky from Longmorn Distillery in Speyside. It was filled into a refill sherry butt in December 1968 — the same year the Connoisseurs Choice range was launched — and bottled in late 2025 at 54.3% ABV.
Tasting notes from the brand say the whisky has aromas of beeswax polish, red apple, stewed raisins and warm spices, followed by notes of dried tobacco, marmalade, walnut and liquorice on the palate before a full finish of cigar box, citrus and pepper.
The Elgin-based bottler says the new range is further “honouring” the original Connoisseurs Choice bottlings by dusting off their characteristic black label design.
Launching the range, a spokesperson for Gordon & MacPhail said: “Through four generations of family ownership, Gordon & MacPhail has matched spirit from over 100 Scottish distilleries to its own bespoke casks. It is this unique depth and breadth of experience that enables the company to combine oak, spirit and time to create iconic whiskies found nowhere else in the world.”
The collection’s launch comes three years after Gordon & MacPhail announced it would stop buying casks for independent bottling, instead focusing on the output of its two Speyside single malt distilleries, Benromach and The Cairn.
The Connoisseurs Choice Heritage 1968 from Longmorn Distillery is available through specialist retailers, with an RSP of £7,000.
The History of Connoisseurs Choice
The Connoisseurs Choice range was the brainchild of George Urquhart. He joined Gordon & MacPhail in 1933, the second generation of his family to enter the business after his father John. George took to the Scotch whisky trade easily, helping build Gordon & MacPhail into a respected bottler and cultivating relationships with distilleries across Scotland.
In the 1960s, having accrued decades of experience and nouse, George had an idea: to launch a range of whiskies from distilleries whose spirit was primarily used for blends and which rarely, if ever, bottled their own single malts.
There was a reason few of these distilleries released malts under their own name. The blended whisky category was gargantuan, with near-total market dominance and significant liquid requirements. Putting too many eggs in the single malt basket was at best foolhardy, at worst commercially ruinous.
But “Mr George”, as he was known to friends, gauged correctly. There was an unmet appetite for single malts among whisky enthusiasts, and consequently Connoisseurs Choice became an international smash hit. Over the decades it has spotlighted distilleries spanning the length and breadth of Scotland — from Caol Ila on Islay to Strathmill in Moray, and from Lochranza Distillery on the Isle of Arran to legendary Highlander Brora.
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