Dear Lynne:
MacClelland's is a private bottler who, like several others, take stock as
available, from various distilleries and markets them under its own name.
Usually the distillery releases it "as is" and the bottler sells it as such.
Usually there is an agreement that the bottler may not refer to the
distillery in any way but only hint at its origin. Other times, that rule is
more relaxed but it happens on a case by case basis. I recently bought a
private bottling of a 25 year old Glenfarclas that had no reference anywhere
to the distillery -- it merely said Speyside... which is like saying the ice
cream in the container comes from somewhere in the USA. It was an
extraordinary buy --- the distillers have their own reasons for letting the
stuff go.
There are 4 Major distilleries on Islay: Lagavulin, Laphroig, Bowmore and
Ardbeag and the latter sells mainly to blenders. There are several other
smaller ones. The Islay whiskey has the smoke and peat flavour that no other
has.
But to pass comment on what a MacClelland bottle has in it cannot be done
without the MacClelland's bottle in front of me.
Or as Tom Waits said: "Better to have a bottle in front of me than a
frontal lobotomy"
Rory in Toronto.
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@quarterman.org
[ To get off or on the list, see http://sinclair.quarterman.org/list.html