Glenglassaugh 1978-2005 - 27 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old Malt Cask - Single Cask 1994

Glenglassaugh has been distilled only sporadically throughout its lifetime. Built in 1875, the distillery was in operation for only five years between 1908 and 1960, and was mothballed again by Highland Distillers in 1986.

Glenglassaugh restarted production in 2008 under new owners the Scaent group before being acquired in 2013 by Billy Walker’s Benriach Distillery Company. Benriach was then snapped up by Brown Forman in 2016 before Walker had had time to properly work the magic that revived Benriach and Glendronach.

With large production gaps and the new spirit from the 2008 reopening only just starting to come of age, it’s unsurprising that official bottlings of Glenglassaugh have been patchy. Both Walker and Scaent bottled some top class long-aged stock, and Walker also released a popular young peated Glenglassaugh called Torfa. Some excellent post-2008 Glenglassaughs have now started to appear from independent bottlers.

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.