Watson & Middleton

Watson & Middleton, Wholesale Wine, Whisky, and Tea Merchants, 19 & 21, Oswald Street.—

    A business which, considering its recent establishment, has been remarkably prosperous is that controlled by Messrs.-Watson & Middleton, wine, spirit, and tea merchants, of 19 & 21, Oswald Street, Glasgow. The firm commenced business in 1885. Mr. Mitchell Watson and Mr. Frederick Middleton, the sole partners, were both bred to the trade, and brought to their new venture great experience and a large personal connection.

    Their premises consist of a large, handsomely fitted up warehouse fronting Oswald Street, with cellars of equal dimensions underneath. Their counting-house is spacious, and furnished in the modern style, and a commodious sample room adjoins. They employ a considerable number of warehousemen, storemen, and clerks. Their stores and cellars contain a large stock of the wines of all countries, carefully selected from the choicest vineries, and comprehending a widely ranging price list ; and in particular bins are some of the rarest vintages on record.

    They are agents for Bordeaux clarets, which include some of the finest brands of the liquor, which in olden times vied in popularity, even in Scotland, with the national beverage. Every connoisseur in wine knows you can hardly appreciate the exquisitely delicate flavour of claret without experience of such specialities as they can supply. Messrs. Watson & Middleton are also agents for Yauleton & Co.’s cognac brandies, which represent the spirit of France in absolute perfection of mildness and flavour. The firm’s stock of champagnes and other sparkling wines is of such variety as to satisfy the most fastidious, and they are in a position to meet the largest demands for all descriptions of foreign spirits.

    In the department of home manufacture they naturally enough particularly excel. Glasgow, foremost in so many good things, is on all hands confessedly the quarter where the very best of “Scotch drink” is obtainable, and to find it within a narrower radius than the wide bounds of the great city, the seeker need go no farther than the stores and cellars of Messrs. Watson & Middleton. There he will find the most famous distilleries of the north represented in their very best form, and special blends of whiskies to suit the most varied tastes. A particular blend which belongs entirely to the firm is the famous “Ballochmyle” whisky, a blend which could only be put together by merchants who thoroughly understand their business and the respective merits of the contributing old whiskies. This blend is so favourably known all over Scotland and the north of England.

    The firm, however, have not confined its attention to the whiskies of Scotland, but for those who prefer the kindred liquor of the Emerald Isle have produced a blend of their own, known by the appropriate name of the “Shillelagh” whisky. This too has been highly popular in the market. In addition to the stock in their warehouse and cellars, Messrs. Watson & Middleton own large quantities of wines, whiskies, and foreign spirits in the Glasgow bonded stores. They do all the bottling on their own premise, and all the latest and most improved appliances for bottling, corking, &c., are in use and kept in constant operation.

    The tea department is a very important branch, under first-class management, and large stocks from the best known gardens of China and India are kept on hand. The trade of the firm extends all over Scotland and the northern counties of England, and their travellers are steadily widening the bounds of their territory southwards.

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