Glenugie 1984-2004 - 20 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old Malt Cask - Single Cask 1320

Glenugie distillery closed in 1983 and is one of the most-lamented of the lost Highland distilleries. Originally founded in 1831 as Invernettie, the distillery had a chequered past before being taken over and modernised in the 1950s and ‘60s by Schenley / Long John Distillers. Glenugie spent its active life in the shadows, with the first bottlings from Cadenhead’s and Gordon & MacPhail appearing around the end of the 1970s, just a few years before the distillery closed for good.

Glenugie was rarely bottled as a single malt, but the casks that survived have almost all been outstanding. Now owned by Pernod Ricard, at the time of writing only three official Glenugies have ever been released, the first of which appeared in 2010. Independent bottlings of Glenugie, the best examples of which are from Signatory Vintage, Cadenhead’s, The Bottlers, Douglas Laing, Gordon & MacPhail and Sestante command a premium at auction due to their scarcity and exceptionally high quality.

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. 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.