Glenesk 1971-2003 - 32 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old & Rare Platinum Selection - Single Cask

Originally built in 1897, Hillside / Glenesk had a chequered past during which its name and function changed frequently - the distillery was earlier known as Highland Esk, North Esk or Montrose and was at different times used to distil either malt or grain whisky, or just as a maltings for other distilleries.

Diageo forerunners DCL took over what was then the Montrose grain distillery in 1953, and turned it into the Hillside malt whisky distillery in 1964 under their Scottish Malt Distillers subsidiary. Hillside produced old style grassy, minerally single malt whisky until its closure in 1985, by which time the name had been changed, for the final time, to Glenesk.

Hillside / Glenesk was never officially bottled in its lifetime; at auction, the best Hillsides are the official Rare Malts editions released between 1995-97, while most independent bottlings use the Glenesk name.

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.