Tamdhu 1989-2011 - 21 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old & Rare Platinum Selection - Single Cask

The Tamdhu distillery has been well-stewarded by owners Ian MacLeod Distillers since they acquired it from Edrington Distillers in 2011. As Edrington’s portfolio also included Highland Park and Macallan, Tamdhu had been given little opportunity to shine, and was mothballed in 2009. Under Ian MacLeod, Tamdhu has been revitalised, with a small but popular core range and frequent single cask and limited edition whiskies including a 1963 50-year-old.  

Tamdhu’s great strength is an affinity for sherry casks that, combined with the excellence of the distillery’s spirit, make Tamdhu’s whisky ideal for long maturation.  In recent years the quality and success of official releases have increased Tamdhu’s prestige, although whisky fans of a certain age have long been aware of Tamdhu’s potential thanks to superb indie bottlings of vintages from the 1950s and 1960s from the likes of Cadenhead’s, Kingsbury and Duncan Taylor.

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.