Murray McDavid was established in 1996 by Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin, and Gordon Wright. On 19 December 2000 Murray McDavid purchased the then-dormant Bruichladdich distillery and returned it to production. On 23 July 2012 it was announced that Rémy Cointreau UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rémy Cointreau Group had acquired Bruichladdich DistilleryCompany Limited with Murray McDavid as part of the acquisition. On 8 May 2013 it was announced that Murray McDavid had been sold to UK based Scotch whisky suppliers Aceo Limited, with director of Aceo Ltd, Edward Odim, saying "Our intention is to continue the legacy of Murray McDavid by staying true to its founders' vision and principles such as bottling carefully selected single malts without chill-filtering or adding colour and continuing and developing the tradition of ACE-ing our whiskies". ACE, often referred to as 'wood finishing' or just 'finishing', is a process of maturing whiskies for a relatively brief period of time, following proper maturation, in selected casks that previously held wines or spirits other than the original casks. For example, a whisky can undergo a several-years' maturation in an ex-bourbon cask, after which it is transferred to an ex-wine to enhance its flavour profile. Hence 'enhancement'. Murray McDavid is famous for a wide variety of casks that they use for this additional maturation, including some grand cru wines, rums, sherry, etc. More recently, they have been using, among others, fresh, first-fill ex-bourbon casks to 'enhance' their whiskies, notably from the Koval Distillery in Chicago.
Murray McDavid products
Murray McDavid mature, select and bottle six main lines of whiskies. These include: Mission Gold - the rarest, oldest and exceptional single malt whiskies, Benchmark - the core range of mature single malts, Mystery Malt - single malt whiskies whose provenance is no more than vaguely hinted at, to puzzle and entertain a curious whisky buff, Select Grain - a range of single grain whiskies, The Vatting - blended malt whiskies, Crafted Blend - blended whiskies. Murray McDavid is currently based at the disused Coleburn Distillery in the Scotch whisky-producing region of Speyside, where a lot of its casked whiskies mature under bond in a traditional, dunnage warehouse. Murray McDavid whiskies are released in strictly limited editions, often single-cask.
