Kenny Dalglish picks five rare whiskies to mark a life in football
From a 74-year-old Glen Grant marking his birth to a Glentauchers distilled the year he won the Premier League with Blackburn, Sir Kenny Dalglish has selected five rare single malts for a £100,000 Gordon & MacPhail collection
There are plenty of footballers who have put their name on a bottle of whisky. Sir Kenny Dalglish has gone rather further, picking five bottles spanning 44 years of Scotch whisky history to tell the story of his life.
Gordon & MacPhail has revealed the whiskies behind its first Vintage Moments collection, after initially announcing its collaboration with the former Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland striker without saying exactly what would be in the box.
Just 15 sets will be released worldwide on 6 October, each containing five 70cl bottles and priced at £100,000. Each whisky was distilled during a year Dalglish chose as significant to him personally, before he travelled to Elgin to taste and select the final five.
Gordon & MacPhail store first opened in Elgin in 1895
The oldest is a 1951 Glen Grant, aged 74 years in a first-fill sherry puncheon and representing the year Dalglish was born in Dalmarnock, Glasgow.
“Everything has to start somewhere, and for me it started in Dalmarnock on 4 March 1951,” Dalglish said. “I was lucky to grow up in a close family with parents who worked hard and gave us every opportunity.”
A 1967 Longmorn, aged 59 years in a first-fill sherry butt, marks the year Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup and Dalglish signed professionally for the club.
“Watching Celtic win the European Cup made every young player at the club believe anything was possible,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to begin pre-season with the first team that summer, and before long I had signed professionally.”
Football takes a back seat for the third bottle, a 1974 Strathisla, aged 52 years in a refill sherry butt, marking his marriage to Marina MacDougall.
1974 Sir Kenny marries Marina on her birthday at Glasgow Netherlee Church. Images from Sir Kenny's Private Collection
“I was lucky enough to win a few doubles during my football career, but the best double of all was marrying Marina on her birthday,” Dalglish said. “People often say that behind every successful man there’s a good woman. I don’t think that’s right. Marina has never been behind me. She’s always been beside me.” The 1977 Benromach, aged 49 years in a first-fill sherry hogshead, represents his move from Celtic to Liverpool.
“Leaving Celtic was one of the hardest decisions I ever made,” he said. “But football doesn’t wait for anyone and I felt it was the right time to challenge myself. Looking back now, joining Liverpool changed my life in ways I could never have imagined.”
Completing the collection is a 1995 Glentauchers, aged 31 years in a first-fill sherry butt, distilled in the year Dalglish led Blackburn Rovers to the Premier League title.
“Winning the Premier League with Blackburn will always be a special memory,” he said. “We had a fantastic group of players and staff who worked tirelessly for one another. To win the title was an incredible achievement, and doing it at Anfield made for one of football’s more unusual stories.”
Dalglish appears to have had rather more involvement than simply lending his name to the collection. He visited Gordon & MacPhail in Elgin in May and tasted a selection of whiskies from his five chosen years, including spirit from different distilleries and different casks, before making his final choices. All five will be bottled at cask strength.
Sir Kenny Dalglish Revealing His Gordon & MacPhail Vintage Moments Box. Image by Vintage Moments by Gordon & MacPhail Whiskies
“It was fascinating to learn that spirit made at the same distillery during the same year, but put into two different types of cask, creates something completely different,” he said.
The bottles have also been individually named: the 1951 Glen Grant is Debut Appearance, the 1967 Longmorn Into The Lion’s Den, the 1974 Strathisla Teammates for Life, the 1977 Benromach It’s Not a Rehearsal, and the 1995 Glentauchers The Fairytale. Each numbered wooden box comes with a book signed by Dalglish telling the stories behind his five years.
The collection also launches a new private-client service from Gordon & MacPhail, which says it holds single malt in cask from every vintage since 1948. Up to ten clients a year will be able to choose five significant years from their own lives and taste whiskies distilled in each before creating their own five-bottle collection, with prices starting at £100,000.
“Selecting these single malts was a real privilege,” Dalglish said. “I’ve been fortunate to experience some wonderful moments throughout my life and choosing just five years that meant the most wasn’t easy.”
The collection is available now, with just 15 sets worldwide priced at £100,000 each, through Gordon & MacPhail or by contacting vintagemoments@gordonandmacphail.com.
