Arran 18 Years Old 1996 Cask #DL 10529 (Old Particular)

Old Particular was created by Douglas Laing in 2013 specifically to replace the Old Malt Cask flagship after Stewart Laing's departure to form Hunter Laing took the OMC brand. Fred Laing, joined by his daughter Cara Laing and son in law Chris Leggatt, established Old Particular as the company's primary aged single cask range, targeting whiskies of fourteen years and older. The series uses three standard bottling strengths: 48.4% representing the historical 85 proof, 51.5% representing 90 proof, and full cask strength for the most distinctive casks.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1996, the second full year of legal production at the post 1837 Arran revival. Maturation ran 18 years in a single cask, with this DL prefixed reference identifying it as a Douglas Laing managed cask post 2013. Bottled at 48.4% with no chill filtration and no added colour.

The 48.4% strength is high enough to preserve the lipid fraction that gives unfiltered single malts their textural weight while sitting below the full cask strength of an eighteen year old Bourbon cask matured spirit. Single cask presentation preserves the specific character of the individual parcel without the dilution that vatting produces. Mid 1990s Arran new make carries the documented fresh fruit and ester forward signature of the Lochranza production template, layered against the eighteen year Bourbon cask interaction at moderately reduced strength.