Lost distilleries and vattings

[Deactivated Member]

Glen Avon is a mysterious beast, sold by G&M as a single malt but there is no Glen Avon distillery. I have no idea what it is, or whether it is always the same malt, but some of the expressions of it are very old. My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I think G&M did a Glenlivet 50yo in the same bottle as the Glen Avon you posted -I saw it in Jenners and the label was in a kind of calligraphy that made me wonder whether it was an OB unti I saw the very tiny Gordon and McPhail name somewhere.

[vitara7]

G+M bottle whisky as glen avon, glen gordon and the likes when they do not have the permission of the distillery that owns the name to use the name on the bottling.

the secret stills bottlings they do is for the same reason, there not allowed to the the names of talisker, bowmore, auchentoshan etc on there botles.

[vitara7]

theyll have records but even if they do know what is in the bottles i dont think theyll be allowed to say.

[Deactivated Member]

My earlier post may have been ambiguous - I don't think the Glen Avon is Glenlivet - G&M seem to be able to use the real name for Glenlivet with happy abandon. The Glen Avon may be a trade name for one they aren't allowed to name or it may be that it is a flexible name that can apply to stock from any distillery that is either not allowed to be named (as V7 suggests) or very unfashionable.

On a slight tangent, I was told that 2007 was the last year that G&M can use the name of Ardbeg. There was apparently some deal when the new owners of Ardbeg came in that IBs could not use the distillery name but they would have an exemption (derogation is the technical word) for 10 years.

[kildalton]

Provided that they always bottle tha same 2 whiskies under the 2 "fanatsy names" I can assure You that
Glen Avon is Glenfarclas and Glen Gordon is Macallan(or there's a slight chance it's glenfarclas as well).

[vitara7]

G+M are allowed to use the name macallan on their bottles so i dont think it would make sence to call it something else other than macallan.

i would bet on them being glenfarclas though as they have a large old stock of many other distillerys in the area and i know the grants dont allow the name glenfarclas on anything but their own bottles.

[Iain]

Many years ago, G&M sales reps would drop heavy hints that Glen Avon was in from The Macallan. Not sure if that was always the case, and I suspect that they would have stopped using Macallan in the mid or late 1990s.

[Deactivated Member]

C57 - I'm not in the industry - just a fan of whiskies who spends a sad amount of time and an even sadder amount of money trying to find out as much as I can about the subject. I got the info about Ardbeg (which may or may not be right) from an expensive G&M tasting of old Glen Grants - the star of which was from 1937.

[Deactivated Member]

No edit button!!!

C57 - I meant to add that some distilleries like to feel they have control over their name as a brand label. They quality control everything that leaves under their name and can ensure it fits their desired profile. Sometimes very good casks get bottled independently, but if a distillery laid claim to these, it would also have to lay claim to the duff ones that end up in bottles and also the ones that might be good but are way off the desired flavour profile. Macduff Distillery has even gone as far as inventing its own name for its OBs - Glen Deveron - whilst allowing others to say that whisky comes from the Macduff Distillery. This is probably the same as Twiglets (perhaps) making generic versions for supermarkets using the exact same recipe but not allowing the supermarkets to call them twiglets.