The Mackinlay Family

1x 1970s Isle of Jura Pure Malt 8 Year Old 5cl

1 x 1980s Mackinlay’s Finest old Scotch Whisky 5cl

1 x 1980s Mackinlay’sLegacy 12 Year Old 5cl

Mackinlay’s has been bottled in numerous guises over the last two centuries, with blended Scotch, vatted malt and single malt all bottled under the brand.

By the early 1980s the brand was the 11th best-selling Scotch in the UK, led by Mackinlay’s Legacy, which was bottled at 12, 17 and 21 years of age, and The Original Mackinlay. At the time, The Original contained ‘no less that 34% malt’, the majority of which was from Speyside. Although the name has changed to Mackinlay’s Original, the same recipe is still adhered to today by Whyte & Mackay’s master blender Richard Paterson. The current version is a vatting of malt and grain whiskies aged for at least five years and bottled at 40% abv.

The brand is most famous for being the whisky of choice of Sir Ernest Shackleton to accompany his 1907 expedition to the South Pole. The 25 cases of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt were made to order at a specific 47.3% abv strong enough to withstand freezing temperatures.

In 2007 several bottles of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt were found at Shackleton’s Antarctic base camp, and analysis found the whisky had been matured in American oak Sherry casks, and produced using Orkney peat in the malting process.

The liquid was recreated for two limited edition releases –The Discovery and The Journey – both of which contained malts from Glen Mhor and Dalmore among others.