Our Story

An unrivalled collection of aged Scotch whisky

For almost one hundred years, generations of the Gordon family have carefully laid down stocks of whisky for special occasions and personal consumption. This rare collection has become known as House of Hazelwood, after the family’s Dufftown home – Hazelwood House.

Today, the House of Hazelwood collection has grown to become the greatest inventory of aged Scotch whisky held anywhere in the world. Spanning seven decades and every corner of Scotland, the diverse whiskies held in cask tell stories of remarkable places, lost ways of working, first casks, last casks, the ambitions and achievements of several lifetimes – none of which will be repeated again. 

The Legacy Collection's Sunshine on Speyside bottle with its box sitting on a desk.
Close up shot of an outdoor compass.
The view of a desk through a doorway.
Whisky expert examining a The First Drop bottle from The Charles Gordon Collection.
The view of an outdoor compass from afar between 2 hedges.

For the first time, this once-private collection is being offered to those outside the immediate family in small batches hand-selected for release. These are the most compelling whiskies that the inventory has to offer – a bridge between the past and the present, each parcel remarkable by virtue of its character, its history or its method of production. Each release creates a window into a time, place and story that is completely unique.

This is a rare opportunity to capture a piece of Scotland’s distilling heritage. Whether bought to enjoy with friends, to share as a gift or to save for a special occasion, it’s all here – a journey through time, matured to perfection, ready to explore.

A process honed through the generations

For almost one hundred years the Gordon family have been laying down stocks of whisky to mature for future generations to enjoy, with the collection growing in scope and stature as the years have passed. And while times may have changed since the collection was first started, the process has remained remarkably similar with each decade and each generation bringing incremental improvements.

Close up shot of a Whisky maker testing whisky.
A barrel maker examining a ring for a barrel.
A barrel maker shaving off some wood from a barrel's side.
Close up of a barrel maker's hands shaving off some wood from the side of a barrel.

Today, the collection is held in a number of carefully selected warehouses across Scotland, each of which brings with it unique environmental conditions that add nuance to the maturing stock. Fresh stocks are laid down each year, some of which aim to repeat the glories of past maturation, others of which are more experimental in nature – designed to further explore the interaction between cask and maturing spirit.

Prior to bottling a small proportion of our finest stocks are held in our traditional dunnage warehousing near Dufftown, the heart of Scotch whisky country, from where they are carefully monitored and can – by private appointment – be sampled from the cask.

A Bottle of The Tops and Blended at Birth side-by-side.

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Explore the current outturn of releases from the House of Hazelwood collection and purchase a piece of Scottish distilling history.

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It's ready when it's ready

Unlike most Scotch whisky producers, the House of Hazelwood collection brings with it no requirement to release whiskies of a given age or a given style on a set date. This is a collection of individual spirits, representing unique casks, experiments that have taken place over the years, combinations that may never be seen again. Central to this is the philosophy that the maturing stock is ready when it’s ready. 

The inventory is regularly sampled, with meticulous records kept of its progress as it matures. Only once it reaches its peak – no sooner and no later – will it be bottled and made available for sale. And of course in a world of individuals, once it’s gone it is truly gone. The whiskies carried within the collection are unique, irreplaceable one-of-a-kinds – single snapshots in the long history of Scotch whisky.