1950’s Spey Royal Advert

In 1815, when Lord Byron married Annabella Milbanke at Seaham Hall, he gave a cask of ‘SPEY’ whisky to King George III as a gift. The royal connection to SPEY whisky has continued in other ways, including this single malt from the Speyside Distillery – the SPEY Royal Choice.

The firm of W&A Gilbey began to concentrate on blended Scotch whisky alongside Gilbey’s gin when it bought into the Aberdeen blending firm of James Catto & Co. in 1916. It’s believed the Spey Royal blend was launched soon after. An advert in The Tatler from 1925 declared the blend was ‘worth hunting for’ – a statement emblazoned above a drawing of a huntsman blowing his horn. The ad claimed Spey Royal was ‘matured for many years in Sherry casks from the best distilleries in Glenlivet’. These were listed as Glen Spey, Strathmill and Knockando, all of which belonged to Gilbey’s.

The blend was once widely distributed from Manhattan to Milan and survived through the IDV years and into the 1970s under Grand Metropolitan. Today W&A Gilbey remains a dormant subsidiary of Diageo, which also owns the company’s associated trademarks. (credit scotchwhisky.com)