Murray McDavid is a bottler of

Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial distil ...

, offering a range of whiskey from vintage single malts and

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legume ...

to blended malts.

History

Murray McDavid was established in 1996 by Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin, and Gordon Wright (who had previously been a director at

Springbank Distillery The Springbank distillery is a family-owned single malt whisky distillery on the Kintyre Peninsula in western Scotland. It is owned by J & A Mitchell & Company, which also owns the Glengyle distillery, the oldest independent bottler, William C ...

). On 19 December 2000 Murray McDavid purchased the then-dormant Bruichladdich distillery and returned it to production. An announcement was made on 23 July 2012 that Murray McDavid had been acquired by Rémy Cointreau UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rémy Cointreau Group, including Bruichladdich Distillery Company as part of the acquisition. Less than a year later, Rémy Cointreau announced that, while the Bruichladdich brand and distillery had been retained, the other business of Murray McDavid had been sold to UK based Scotch whisky suppliers Aceo Limited, with director of Aceo Ltd, Edward Odim, saying "Our intention is to continue the legacy of Murray McDavid by staying true to its founders' vision and principles such as bottling carefully selected single malts without chill-filtering or adding colour and continuing and developing the tradition of ACE-ing our whiskies". ACE (Additional Cask Enhancement, a term coined at Murray McDavid), often referred to as 'wood finishing' or just 'finishing', is a process of maturing whiskies for a relatively brief period of time, following proper maturation, in selected casks that previously held wines or spirits other than the original casks. For example, a whisky can undergo a several-years' maturation in an ex-bourbon cask, after which it is transferred to an ex-wine (ex-sherry, ex-madeira, ex-rum, etc.) to enhance its flavour profile. Hence 'enhancement'. More recently, they have been using, among others, fresh, first-fill ex-bourbon casks to 'enhance' (or finish) their whiskies, notably from the Koval Distillery in Chicago.

Murray McDavid products

Murray McDavid mature, select and bottle six main lines of whiskies. These include: Mission Gold - the oldest single malt whiskies, Benchmark - the core range of mature single malts, Mystery Malt - single malt whiskies whose provenance is no more than vaguely hinted at, to puzzle and entertain a curious whisky buff, Select Grain - a range of single grain whiskies, The Vatting -

blended malt A blended malt, formerly called a vatted malt, or pure malt, is a blend of different single malt whiskies from different distilleries. These terms are most commonly used in reference to Scotch whisky, or whisky in that style, such as Japanese w ...

whiskies (vatting of two or more single malt whiskies), Crafted Blend - blended whiskies (vatting of single malt and single grain whiskies). Murray McDavid is currently based at the disused Coleburn Distillery in the Scotch whisky-producing region of

Speyside Speyside can refer to: * Speyside, Ontario, a settlement in Ontario * Strathspey, Scotland, the famous whisky producing region by the River Spey ** Speyside single malts, the type of whisky produced in Strathspey * Speyside, Trinidad and Tobago ...

, where a lot of its casked whiskies mature under bond in a traditional, dunnage warehouse. Murray McDavid whiskies are released in strictly limited editions, often single-cask.

References

Scottish malt whisky 1996 establishments in Scotland {{whisky-stub