Gordon & MacPhail's 85-year Glenlivet goes on sale: 125 bottles at £125,000
Family-owned whisky maker unveils what it calls the world's oldest single malt, matured for 85 years and housed in a bronze-and-glass decanter by American architect Jeanne Gang.
Gordon & MacPhail has released what it describes as an 85-year-old single malt from the Glenlivet Distillery, presented in 125 handblown decanters with a retail price of £125,000 each. The company says it marks the oldest single-malt Scotch ever bottled and made the release available worldwide from 2 October 2025.
The spirit was held in an American oak cask — No. 336 — which had previously held mature sherry before being refilled by John and George Urquhart in early February 1940; the cask was bottled in February 2025. The family’s decision to wait — across four generations — is central to the release’s provenance.
Only 125 decanters have been produced; apart from the first decanter to be auctioned, the remaining 124 are being offered at the stated retail price through Gordon & MacPhail’s selected channels. At the headline price the issue implies a total potential value in excess of £15 million.
The limited edition is presented as "artistry in oak" and features a bespoke decanter by American architect Jeanne Gang. The design suspends a handblown glass vessel within four cast-bronze branch forms intended to reference the role of oak in maturation; Gordon & MacPhail say the bronze is designed to patinate over time in deliberate sympathy with the whisky’s ageing.
Decanter No. 1 will be offered by Christie’s New York in an online auction, with bidding open from 7 November to 21 November 2025; proceeds from that lot (minus costs) will be donated to the conservation charity American Forests. The Christie’s lot also includes a tasting with Gordon & MacPhail’s Director of Prestige and a framed section of the original cask.
The distiller lists aromas of aged leather, apricot compote and cinnamon; flavours of cracked black pepper, sweet dried tobacco, morello cherry and Seville orange peel; and a 43.7% ABV. It emphasises how the cask's history of holding sherry has influenced the liquid.
The release follows a growing market for ultra-aged single malts; record-age Macallan and other historic lots have set precedents for high-value auctions and private sale. Gordon & MacPhail frame the initiative as both an act of family stewardship and a dialogue about material and cultural legacy.
Gordon & MacPhail was founded in Elgin in 1895 and remains family-owned; the company says the release is intended to celebrate craft, continuity and the role of oak in flavour development, while directing the charity proceeds toward oak conservation in the United States. The firm’s public materials state the sale is part of a wider positioning of rare casks as both cultural artefact and fundable resource for legacy projects.
Decanter No. 1 will be viewable through Christie’s online catalogue ahead of the November auction; the wider release of the remaining decanters is being handled by Gordon & MacPhail’s prestige sales division and its international retail partners.
