Pittyvaich 15 Year Old - Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask Miniature

One of Speyside’s most shortlived distilleries of the modern era, Pittyvaich opened in 1974 and closed in 1993 - the same year as Rosebank - but has never attracted the same kind of retrospective exaltation. Pittyvaich’s spirit was always designed and destined for blended Scotch, particularly Bell’s, and is sometimes less obviously lovable than some of its contemporaries. The distillery was demolished in 2002.

Pittyvaich was only officially bottled once in its lifetime, an interesting but uninspiring sherried 12-year-old Flora & Fauna edition; much better were the posthumous Special Release bottlings in 2009, 2015 and a trio from consecutive years 2018-2020. Independent bottlings of Pittyvaich are unsurprisingly rare, but some great examples exist from Cadenhead’s and James MacArthur, as well as a sensational Kingsbury bottling of a Pittyvaich sherry butt from 1974, the distillery’s first year of operation.

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.