Speyside 1991-2022 - 30 Year Old - Douglas Laing - XOP - Single Cask 15455

The whisky entrepreneur George Christie, who built the now-defunct North of Scotland grain distillery in 1957, commissioned the construction of a new single malt whisky distillery in Speyside in 1962. Beset by delays, the distillery was completed in 1987, the year after Christie had sold the company, and the new Speyside distillery finally began producing spirit in 1990.

Early bottlings of Speyside’s whisky, such as Drumguish, were not met with great success in the UK, but the distillery subsequently found its niche producing the Spey Malt and several proprietary blends for Asian markets. After being bought in 2000 by a consortium including George Christie’s son Ricky, Speyside changed hands again in 2012 when it was taken over by Harvey’s of Edinburgh.

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.