LOT ID: 1023-382
End Date : Jan 03 2024 08:00 PM
Brora 1972 - 2003. 30 Year Old. Single Cask. One of 220 bottles matured in a First Fill Sherry Cask. 70cl. 47.4%. In presentation tube.
A single cask Brora from the legendary 1972 vintage, this was bottled as a 30-year-old in 2003 as an exclusive bottling by Douglas Laing for chain retailers The Whisky Shop. This 30-year-old Brora came from a single sherry cask that yielded 220 bottles at its natural cask strength of 47.4% and was one of a handful of top class Douglas Laing bottlings for the chain.
FILLING LEVEL
Lower Neck
The distillery now called Brora was known as Clynelish for most of its working life, producing a remarkable coastal Highland style lightly peated whisky with an acclaimed waxy character. Clynelish’s success led owners DCL to build a second distillery on the site in 1967, which is the Clynelish we know today.
The original Clynelish closed briefly in 1968, but reopened the following year as Brora to make a more heavily peated malt whisky for blending purposes. Sadly the distillery was later deemed surplus to requirements and was closed in 1983. DCL’s successors Diageo announced plans to reopen Brora in 2017 and after a lengthy restoration distillation recommenced in 2021.
Any Clynelish whiskies pre-dating the 1970s are from the distillery now known as Brora, as are most if not all of the old Ainslie & Heilbron official 12-year-olds that continued into the early 1980s. The most famous modern era Brora bottlings are the 1990s Rare Malts Editions (particularly the 1972 vintages) and the Brora 30-year-olds from Diageo’s Special Releases.
Founded in the late 1940s by Fred Douglas Laing Sr, the Douglas Laing company spent decades as whisky blenders and exporters before Fred Laing’s sons Stewart and Fred Jr introduced the highly influential Old Malt Cask single malt range in 1998. The McGibbon’s Provenance and Old & Rare Platinum series followed soon afterwards, establishing Douglas Laing as one of Scotland’s finest independent bottlers.
In 2013 Stewart Laing left the business, taking Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare to his new company Hunter Laing, while Fred Laing Jr was joined by his daughter Cara and her husband Chris Leggatt from Morrison Bowmore, who left the business in 2023. The Old Particular and Extra Old Particular ranges were introduced to replace Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare, and the company has since moved into distilling with the purchase of Strathearn distillery in 2019 and the construction of Clutha distillery in Glasgow.
BID | DATE | TIME | |
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£2,100.00 | 21st December 2023 | 14:54 | |