Diageo has announced the rebirth of Mortlach™, one of the most formidable and revered Single Malt Scotch Whiskies to have been created on Speyside.
For decades, Mortlach’s output has been largely captured by Diageo’s blenders to add its unique notes to complex world-class Blended Scotch whiskies – though in recent times, a very limited number of bottles of Mortlach Single Malt Whisky have been available, and sold rapidly to connoisseurs in the know.
But now for the first time, and in response to suggestions over the years that such a rewarding Single Malt Whisky deserved a wider market, it will be available in global markets in four expressions aimed at global travel and the luxury and connoisseur segment: Rare Old, Special Strength, 18-year-old and 25-year-old.
Mortlach has been described by whisky connoisseurs as “The Beast of Dufftown”, for its rich and powerful flavours, produced in an astonishingly complicated and unique distillation process which commentators have attempted to explain as ‘2.81 Distilled’.
A famous family had a hand in that.
In 1823 Mortlach was the first distillery to be built at Dufftown, now one of the epicentres of Speyside whisky distilling. Its most eminent owners were the entrepreneurial Scottish civil engineer George Cowie,and his gifted and equally ambitious son Dr Alexander Cowie.
After playing a role in the shaping of the railway industry in the 19th century, George Cowie applied his pioneering and precise approach to engineering another great challenge, the production of Single Malt Scotch Whisky. He accepted a partnership at the Mortlach distillery in 1852, before becoming sole owner in 1867.
He clearly made an impact as shortly afterwards a local newspaper wrote: “There is not perhaps a distillery in Scotland that has so many private customers as Mortlach from which spirits are sent not only over the three kingdoms to families, but to America, India, China and Australia, in all of which Mr Cowie has customers who prefer his distillation to all others …” (The Elgin Courant, 1869).
In 1896, George died and his son Alexander, who through his own pioneering work had become an enlightened traveller, returned to Dufftown from Hong Kong and assumed full control of the distillery. Harnessing his entrepreneurial energies and scientific background to oversee the development of Mortlach, Alexander paved the way for the creation of a unique distillation system precisely calculated to create the highly complex and richly flavoured whisky that we know today. Alexander developed a profound knowledge and mastery of whisky making. Indeed, his pioneering work on whisky creation and production was soon recognised in the leading role he played in Scotland’s expanding malt whisky world.
As Chairman of the North of Scotland Malt Distillers’ Association, Alexander represented the interests of over 40 distillers in the North of Scotland and spoke on their behalf at the 1908/09 Royal Commission on Whiskey, where he proudly claimed “I am a malt distiller of high flavoured whisky, a thick type of whisky”.
In a golden age of Victorian expansion and improvement, George and Alexander Cowie were typical of those generations of Scottish engineers, scientists, surveyors and entrepreneurs who, with a energetic sense of purpose, made a confident and lasting mark not just in Scotland and Britain but around the world.
At the helm of the Mortlach distillery for over half a century, the Cowies’ innovative spirit shaped the brand and liquid for centuries to come. In the spirit of these pioneers, the reborn Mortlach whiskies are a celebration of those audacious thinkers who shaped today’s world, just as their forefathers did in the era in which Mortlach was born.
Just as both generations of Cowies made major investments to expand and improve their distillery, so they would undoubtedly be proud to note that its present owners (as announced in April 2013) are investing to double the distillery’s capacity and promote its whiskies widely – a statement of intent and ambition that George and Alexander would surely endorse. The expansion will include the building of a new stillhouse, which will replicate the bewilderingly complex distillation process which makes Mortlach™ unique.
The new Mortlach expressions will be available in selected markets in mid-2014. Further details of pricing, distribution and packaging will be released in early 2014.
Jeffrey Dale Starr is a whisky enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.
