John Urquhart learned from James Gordon, and George Urquhart learned from his father - by the end of his life he was universally recognised as one of the most knowledgeable people in the entire Scotch whisky trade. He passed on his skills and experience in selecting and evaluating whiskies to his sons and daughter - and their children might be said to have whisky in the blood!

Scottish families have long memories. Over the generations, the Urquharts have learned that the quality of the whiskies they bottle today is conditional upon the quality of the new make spirit and the casks in which it has been matured.

In other words, to quote a family saying:

"The future is shaped by what we do today. Today reveals what we did in the past."

Perhaps the most important skill handed down from generation to generation is cask selection. George was one of the first to realise just how important maturation is to the creation of fine malt whisky, and to recognise the truth of the old adage: "the wood makes the whisky".

The wood is either European or American oak; the casks come in three sizes (butt, hogshead, barrel) and will previously either have held Bourbon or sherry. Each time a cask is filled with Scotch spirit its maturing capability diminishes, and after three or four fills it is 'exhausted'.

So there are several variables to take account of when choosing a cask, and one thing that George Urquhart learned from his father was the importance of matching the cask to the spirit it would mature, and the ultimate use to which the mature whisky would be put - single malt, blended malt or blended whisky.

Happily, Gordon & MacPhail now has a considerable stock of such carefully selected casks, holding a variety of greatly aged malt whiskies.