Laphroaig 2002-2015 - 13 Year Old - Douglas Of Drumlanrig - Single Cask 11544

An iconic southern Islay distillery, Laphroaig is the benchmark for heavily-peated smoky single malt whisky. The distillery has been Islay’s most successful single malt for many decades now, so much so that in 1908, following a commercial dispute, White Horse’s Peter Mackie famously tried to create a copy of Laphroaig at Lagavulin, leading to the birth of Malt Mill.

Today, the most revered and sought-after Laphroaigs at auction fall broadly into two camps: the old official bottlings of Laphroaig 10-year-old from the late 1960s-1980s; and the extraordinary independent bottlings of 1960s and early 1970s vintages by Gordon & MacPhail, Signatory, Cadenhead’s and the Italian bottlers Samaroli and Intertrade. The common denominator in these legendary bottlings is a remarkably fruity character alongside the phenolic bombast - sadly this fruitiness is no longer found in Laphroaig’s modern distillate.

Douglas of Drumlanrig was a collaborative line of independent bottlings of single malt whisky released by indie bottlers Douglas Laing and the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry. The whiskies were bottled with labels featuring a portrait of the Duke’s ancestral home, Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire. Some magnificent casks appeared under this label, including long-aged cask strength drams from Ardbeg, Macallan and Port Ellen.

Douglas of Drumlanrig bottlings were released under Douglas Laing’s Langside Distillers subsidiary and the range was successful, with over 400 bottlings released since 2000. Langside Distillers was assigned to Hunter Laing during the 2013 split with Douglas Laing, but the Douglas of Drumlanrig brand was stymied soon afterwards by a trademark lawsuit. Hunter Laing won the case, but the Douglas of Drumlanrig brand has remained dormant since 2016.