Douglas Laing Old Particular

So, this is the release we’d all been waiting for! For the last couple of months Douglas Laing had been teasing us with little snippets of information about their new single cask range, and finally the waiting is over. For some strange reason I keep referring to it as the Old Peculiar range! Hmm, I guess that must just be me!

The first release consisted of 21 bottlings, of which they kindly sent me 11 samples, unfortunately one of them wasn’t the 31 year old Port Ellen, but with a price tag close to £370 wasn’t a surprise. Mind you as old Port Ellen’s go that’s probably not too bad a price.

Anyway, this range will be comprised of single casks whiskies that are a minimum of 13 years old, with the younger bottlings being bottled at 48.4%, the older ones will be bottled at 51.5% and some will be bottled at their natural cask strength. As you would expect they are all non chill-filtered and non-coloured. And as you can see from the pictures of those that I have chosen to stock, the packaging looks pretty good as well!

I started with the 15 year old Braeval was probably the fruitiest bottling from that distillery that I have ever come across, and a very impressive start. Glen Ord can be a little hit or miss and although this 16 year old was pleasant, it wasn’t as impressive as the Braeval. The same could be said for the 17 year old Miltonduff, which was a little on the hot side as well as the 17 year old Arran, which was pleasant enough, if a little edgy.

The 18 year old Auchroisk, on the other hand was superb. A real tropical fruit fest! The 20 year old Glen Keith took a little while to get going, certainly on the palate with most of the complexity unfolding on the finish. I loved the 21 year old Glen Garioch, and so did a lot of other people apparent, as it had all sold out by the time I placed my order, and I wasn’t slow in placing it!