Serendipity History

One production manager at The Glenmorangie Company described the creation of Serendipity as a disaster. Marketing manager Hamish Torrie had another view.

The mistake occurred in 2005 in the blending hall at Broxburn when a nameless operative dumped a large volume of 12-year-old Glen Moray into a much larger volume of older Ardbeg. However, Torrie decided to take advantage of the situation by releasing the accidental vatting as a limited edition expression he named Serendipity.

Some 16,000 bottles were produced – under the old Macdonald & Muir company name – which sold out very quickly at £39.99 per bottle. There are, however, a large number of bottles available at online auction sites, although their value has somewhat increased. 

Serendipity was not the first large-scale blending error to have occurred at Broxburn. In 1999 a vat of Glenmorangie 21-year-old was accidently mixed with a smaller amount of another whisky. The mistake, which contained 80% Glenmorangie, was subsequently released as 80:20 by the company’s Douglas McNiven & Co. subsidiary.