Macduff 1967-2003 - 35 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Old & Rare Platinum Selection

Built in 1962, Macduff is a relatively large, though quiet, Highland distillery that spends its days making high quality single malt spirit for owner Bacardi’s blended whisky portfolio. Perhaps due to the Macduff name’s similarity to Miltonduff, official bottlings of Macduff’s whisky appeared as Glen Deveron until 2015, when a new range was launched as The Deveron.

Stylistically, Macduff is closer to its near neighbours on Speyside than the classic Highland style, with a clean, technically pure, malty, sweet, fruity style. At auction, 1960s vintages by Douglas Laing and Duncan Taylor are the most highly sought after, with the best value probably the 1970s vintages by First Cask and 1990s vintages bottled by Signatory and Ian MacLeod.

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.