How change in laws led to new whisky launch!
(Story dated October 9, 2003)

Robert Miller, of John Scott and Miller, shows off the new whiskies which have been launched. (Picture: Michael MacLeod/Style Studio)

Two unique new Orkney single malt whiskies have just been launched, offering dram lovers a Highland Park whisky “with a difference”.

John Scott’s is a limited, numbered edition of 37 and 35-year-old Highland Park that was laid down by John Scott and Miller of Kirkwall, who have been in the wine and spirits business since the 1890s.

Managing director of the company, Mr Robert Miller, explained that the new whiskies are exclusive and he plans to release a 35-year-old blended version at the beginning of December.

The whiskies are considerably older than the regular Highland Park brands, which offer 12, 18 and 25 year old versions.

Mr Miller told The Orcadian that the firm at one time bought whisky from Highland Park distillery and bottled the amber nectar themselves.

“We used to buy the whisky when it was distilled and then laid it down at the distillery. Years later we would take a cask down to the back shop, where we manually cleaned the bottles, filtered the whisky and filled and bottled it. We then labelled them with our own label and sold them.”

By the late 1960s turnover of the popular whisky was rising and Mr Miller estimates that at its peak, the firm was laying down approximately 240 gallons of whisky each year.

However, hygiene laws, coupled with new health and safety legislation, forced the firm to stop the practice in about 1967.

“My father (also Robert) had 12 casks of whisky laid down when our bottling service ceased and it is that whisky we have just released,” said Mr Miller.

“We thought a lot about the name and had a few in mind but eventually we came down in favour of John Scott’s.”

“John Scott, the original title of the company, was featured on all shop bottlings of Highland Park up until 1955,” states the firm’s publicity material. “It is a homage to this practice that we have revived the old name to identify our very own expressions of this prestigious and distinctive malt.”

Mr Graeme Wright, Scott and Miller’s wines and spirits buyer, told The Orcadian that the whiskies are “absolutely unique”.

The sherry cask 37-year-old has a strength of 42.2 per cent and is almost as dark as a sweet sherry in colour. It is described as “concentrated and very intense” with a “spicy, liquorice, dark chocolate” taste and long finish.

Meanwhile, the 34-year-old refill cask whisky is dark, rich amber in colour, and is “dry, warm, spicy and rich” and “pretty intense”.

“It is obviously a commercial decision to take the whisky out of bond,” said Mr Miller, “but there are strong sentimental implications as my late father laid it down all these years ago.

“This is a one-off and we are delighted with the result and I am sure he would have been too,” he said.

The name for the whisky, which sells for £95 and £89 per bottle respectively, comes from the founder of the business. Mr Miller’s grandfather took over the firm in 1916 after Mr Scott died and the company has been in the Miller family ever since.

The whisky was officially launched at the recent Speyside Whisky Festival in Dufftown and already Scott and Miller’s have made sales in Japan and Sweden.

In all, the company plans six releases, five single cask malts and a blend, which itself will be 35-year-old.