Tomintoul 1978-2003 - 24 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old Malt Cask - Single Cask

Tomintoul is an overlooked distillery at auction, meaning that the distillery’s high quality drams often represent very good value for drinkers. Rescued from Whyte & MacKay in 2000 when it was bought by Angus Dundee Distillers, Tomintoul’s motto ‘The Gentle Dram’ is a good indicator of what to expect from most modern bottlings.

It might be thought that Tomintoul’s misfortune is to be a purveyor of subtle, nuanced Speyside whisky in an era where boisterous heavily-flavoured peaty or sherried whiskies are in vogue, but the distillery also makes a heavily-peated malt whisky of its own which is marketed as Old Ballantruan.

At auction, long-aged independent bottlings of Tomintoul and official releases from the 1970s or early 1980s often reveal a slightly more robust, fruity, waxy Highland style, and generally offer an impressive bang for your buck.

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.