Douglas Laing Gets Particular With New Single Cask Range

September 6, 2013 – When Fred and Stewart Laing agreed to split up the assets of their family’s Douglas Laing & Co. at the end of April, both brothers pledged to have new lines of whiskies ready for the market as soon as possible — to make up for the brands each one agreed to give up to the other in the split. Now, Fred Laing and his daughter Cara have released the first batch of bottlings in the new Douglas Laing’s Old Particular range of single cask bottlings.

Cara started working on the range in January after leaving her position as a brand manager at Morrison Bowmore. “When we took up the baton, the pair of us here together, we were fairly far along the road,” Fred Laing told WhiskyCast’s Mark Gillespie in an interview. “But, there’s quite a long gestation period putting a pack together and getting the right samples that we could either accept or reject for what, for us, is a particularly important launch.”

The name comes from one of the old Douglas Laing brands, and Laing said a discussion among staff members led to the decision to revive the name.

“Old Particular, we felt, was particularly nice because we’re trying to make a particular claim and a particular indication that the stock we’ve got, the packaging we’ve brought, is particularly appropriate, not to bore you too much with such particulars.” 

The range will launch with about 20 new bottlings each month, starting in September with a 16-year-old Laphroaig, a 31-year-old Port Ellen, a 20-year-old Tomatin, a 15-year-old Braeval, a 16-year-old Clynelish, and a 25-year-old Bowmore, along with bottlings from Arran, Bladnoch, Blair Athol, and other distilleries.

The Laings plan to announce a new small batch series coming on October 1, and a new Speyside version of their Big Peat Islay whisky on November 1.

Links: Douglas Laing & Co.