Masahiro Shuzo

An old Glasgow blend recently revamped by its current owner, Pernod Ricard.

Little is known about Harvey MacNair and Co’s early years, except that it was established in 1857. By 1911, the year the firm acquired the Benromach distillery near Elgin, its registered office was 5 Dixon Street, Glasgow, now a hair extension clinic. The company was eventually incorporated in 1931, and at some point was swallowed up by the big Canadian distilling firm of Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts, which actively began buying into Scotch whisky, including Ballantine’s, after the repeal of US Prohibition in 1933. MacNair’s Highland Whisky was being promoted in Mexico in the 1950s as the perfect base for a Highball Escoces (Scottish Highball), with the promise of no headache to follow. The brand became part of the Allied Distillers portfolio, and thence Pernod Ricard in 2005. MacNair’s Special Reserve was given a new lease of life in 2012 with a new rectangular bottle and bold, white-on-black label.