Royal Lochnagar 1985-2003 - 18 Year Old - Douglas McGibbon - Provenance

Royal Lochnagar is the smallest and one of the prettiest distilleries in Diageo's stable. Lochnagar acquired its Royal Warrant from Prince Albert in 1848 after he and Queen Victoria accepted an invitation from the distillery’s canny owner John Begg to visit the distillery, which is a stone’s throw from Balmoral.

Royal Lochnagar’s distillery capacity is just 500,000 litres and the make is an important part of both Johnnie Walker Blue Label and the Windsor blended whisky, a prominent brand in Asia. Official bottlings of Royal Lochnagar as a single malt are therefore limited to the standard 12-year-old, occasional Special Release editions and the popular Selected Reserve bottling, which first appeared in the late 1980s - at which time it was the most expensive single malt whisky in Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distillers’ portfolio. Indie bottlings of Lochnagar are scarce but well worth seeking out.

Founded in 1947 by Fred Douglas Laing Sr, Douglas McGibbon is a subsidiary of famous independent whisky bottlers Douglas Laing. The McGibbon's brand began as one of Laing’s proprietary blends and by the 1970s had found great success, particularly in the Far East, where McGibbon’s golf-themed ceramic decanters were so popular they won the company a Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1990.

Douglas Laing moved into independent bottling in 1998 and the McGibbon’s Provenance series was launched in 2000 as a budget range, releasing a great many excellent Port Ellen casks in the early Noughties. McGibbon’s Provenance was renamed Douglas Laing’s Provenance in 2015 but the McGibbon’s subsidiary survives today as the vehicle for the company’s Clan Denny range.