Strathclyde 1987-2018 - 30 Year Old - Douglas Laing - XOP - Single Cask 12375

Strathclyde is a grain whisky distillery built, as the name might suggest, on the banks of the river Clyde in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. Strathclyde started life in 1927 as a gin distillery, switching to grain whisky in the 1930s after owners Seager Evans bought the Long John blended whisky brand and the Glenugie distillery.

Strathclyde is one of several grain whisky distilleries which have also been home to a malt whisky facility at one time, hosting the short-lived Kinclaith distillery’s two pot stills onsite for new owners Schenley Industries between the late 1950s and 1975. In the course of a subsequent ownership merry-go-round, Strathclyde was sold in 1989 to Allied Lyons, whose successor Allied Domecq was acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2005. The distillery is now part of Pernod’s Chivas Brothers operation, making grain whisky principally for the Ballantine’s blend.

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.