The company started life in 1838 as Robert Don and Co. and changed its name when George Morton bought it in 1868. It had a steady history, mainly in the hands of various members of the Morton family, until it was acquired in 1981 by the now defunct Amalgamated Distilled Products PLC, which merged with the Argyll Group PLC two years later.

The firm produced such whiskies as Auld Brig, Christy & Brooks, Copper Pot, Dundee Cream of Scotch, Morton’s Blended, Morton’s Royal Mile, Morton’s Special Reserve and The Reliance. The name carries on, but no longer linked to whisky but to rum in the form of O.V.D., originally imported from Guyana in 1838 and now in the hands of William Grant & Sons of Glenfiddich fame.