Gordon & MacPhail has named its new Speyside distillery The Cairn. The distillery from the Scotch Whisky bottler is expected to open in spring 2022.
News of the Gordon & MacPhail The Cairn distillery was first announced back in May 2018. The company secured planning approval to build the distillery in the Cairngorms National Park in October last year. Construction began in July 2020, but was delayed by the coronavirus.
The distillery has been dubbed The Cairn because of its location overlooking the Cairngorm mountains. In Scottish Galeic, “cairn” means a man-made pile of stones constructed as a memorial or landmark.
“We have put the consumer right at the heart of the process of creating the brand, as we have with the design of the distillery itself,” brands director Ian Chapman. “We wanted to make sure it was clearly Scottish, but easy for consumers to pronounce and to spell. This will be particularly important for our international markets when English is not the first language.”
The Cairn will be the second dstillery from Gordon & Macphail, which also owns Benromach Distillery. “We also had to be mindful of Benromach, our other distillery,” noted Chapman. “We wanted the new brand to complement, not compete.”
The new icon for the brand represents the “coming together of many pieces to form the cairn.”
The Cairn distillery will include a visitor experience, tasting rooms, retail space and a coffee shop. When it opens, the site will become the first new distillery based in the Cairngorms National Park since its creation in 2003.
This year marks the 125th Anniversary of Gordon & Macphail and in celebration are releasing a quartet of rare, special edition Whiskies. Back in September, It unveiled the first Whisky, a 1972 Scotch from Coleburn Distillery. In October, it debuted a 1984 single malt from Glenury Royal Distillery. And just a few days ago it released the third offering from the collection, a 1979 Mosstowie from Miltonduff Distillery.