Port Dundas 14 Years Old 2004 Cask #DL 13039 (Douglas Laing)

This is a single grain Port Dundas, chosen and bottled by Douglas Laing matured to 14 year old, from 2004, drawn from cask DL 13039 and bottled at 48.4%. The outturn was 413 bottles. Once one of Glasgow's two grain distilleries, Port Dundas was built in 1811 above the city of Glasgow before being closed by Diageo in 2010. What survives is held by Diageo and a scattering of independent bottlers.

Distilled from unpeated wheat with a little malted barley and worked through continuous patent stills, it began as the light, sweet spirit grain whisky is known for. A Pedro Ximenez butt held it, the dark sherry soaking deep into the spirit. A decade and a half in oak knits cask and spirit, building a creamy, sweet make. Patience is everything with grain, the finest examples resting for decades.

At a natural 48.4% it is bold and full. Deep raisin and treacle come from the Pedro Ximenez sugars, while broken down lignin lends vanilla and oak lactones a gentle coconut, with a butterscotch and toffee sweetness, over a base of light citrus and tropical fruit. A light citrus and soft tropical fruit run beneath the sweetness. A creamy, lingering finish rounds it off. This is proof of how gracefully old grain can age.