Port Dundas 16 Years Old 2004 Cask #DL 14630 (Douglas Laing)

This Port Dundas grain was from the independent bottler Douglas Laing, a 16 year old from 2004, drawn from cask DL 14630 and bottled at 48.4%. A small release of 246 bottles. Port Dundas was a vast Glasgow grain distillery, dating to 1811 in the heart of Glasgow's blending trade and shut in 2010 and demolished soon after. For decades its light spirit went into blends like White Horse and Bell's.

The spirit was run through the distillery's continuous Coffey stills from a wheat mash drawn on Loch Katrine water, the gentle grain make once destined for blends. It was matured in an ex-Bourbon barrel, wood that rounds the spirit gently. Well into its second decade, the spirit has softened and the cask sweetness come forward. The slow loss of the angel's share, one to two percent a year, has concentrated the liquid over time.

At 48.4%, undiluted, it is concentrated. The toasted oak gives vanilla, with the wood lactones lend coconut and a creme brulee note from the caramelised sugars, over the orchard and tropical fruit of mature grain. Water is rarely needed, the spirit already soft and open. The finish is gentle, sweet and clean. This is one of a dwindling number of bottlings from a closed grain distillery.