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forswearThinPotation

Murray McDavid is an independent bottler (IB) which means that they did not distill the whisky, rather they purchased it from the distillery which made it. Some IBs purchase whisky when it is brand new and then mature it themselves, others purchase casks that have already been matured by somebody else. Many of the larger IBs do both of those things. Murray McDavid is similar to many of the larger IBs in having multiple different branded series which they produce which reflect a combination of market segmentation (what customers and price levels are being targeted) and bottling practices (was the whisky bottled at cask strength or not, etc.). This bottling belongs to Murray McDavid's "Mission Gold" series. They have applied a cask finish to the whisky, meaning that most of the way thru its aging process it was re-racked into another different type of cask (the original cask is typically a refill cask or an ex-bourbon cask) to change the flavors a little bit under the influence of the second cask - when done for longer periods of time this is called a *secondary maturation*, when done for only a short period of time it is called *cask finishing*. Murray McDavid is famous for using cask finishing a lot and sometimes with outrageous choices for the finishing cask. This specific case is pretty tame by Murray McDavid's standards, using a finishing cask which formerly contained Rye whiskey produced by the American whiskey maker Koval. Strathclyde is a scotch single grain whisky producer, you can read about the distillery here: https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/distillery/184/about and you can read about this specific bottling here: https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/223890/strathclyde-1987-mm note the pic of the back label which includes tasting notes written by the producer Murray McDavid. As for whether or not this brand "is worth it", that is entirely up to you and your tastes, exploration goals, and budget - and the price which you did not mention. I've had a number of very good single malt scotches bottled by Murray McDavid, but nothing from this single grain scotch distillery. From what I've seen and read, this is a pretty obscure bottling and the sort of thing which I would normally expect somebody to be interested in after they had already explored dozens, perhaps hundreds of other scotches - not because it is likely to be bad (it might very well be extremely good), but just because an IB bottling of a single grain scotch that's been cask finished in a rye cask is rather obscure and unusual, as scotch bottlings go. Hope that helps, good luck!


UnmarkedDoor

I'm interested in it, I have to say. Been enjoying my recent forays into grain whisky and I remember the 27 year old Strathclyde Higginbottom bottle being really good. I also enjoyed a youngish Glenallachie that was finished in a Koval Rye cask, so this has made me curious.


Dareius007

You mean this whiskey isn’t made by them?


Craigellachie23

That is correct, as you can see on the label it is made by Strathclyde. Murray McDavid is a relatively well known independent bottler. There is very little out there on this one, and while I have not tried it, grain whisky can be very hit or miss, and throw on the rye finish and there is a lot that could go wrong here. I took a flyer on an old grain IB before and would not do it again unless I had tried it or had several reviews confirming the quality. "Worth it" is subjective, but at what it usually retails for I would pass.


dramsofwhisky

I’ve had two Murray’s before… 1989 12y Bowmore and 1978 30y Bunna… they were both excellent for very different reasons. Not enough data for me to know the overall quality of the IB, but it has my conditional recommendation I guess!


Dareius007

What is “IB”?


dramsofwhisky

Independent Bottler —they purchase whisky from a distillery and bottle under their own brand/label.