Port Dundas 18 Years Old 2004 Cask #DL 18106 (Douglas Laing)

Douglas Laing bottled this Port Dundas grain, an 18 year old from 2004, drawn from cask DL 18106 and bottled at 48.4%. A small release of 452 bottles. Port Dundas was Scotland's largest distillery in its prime, opened in 1811 in the city of Glasgow and wound down by Diageo in 2010. Two fires in the early twentieth century could not halt its rise to the top.

Grain whisky like this was run through the distillery's continuous Coffey stills from a wheat mash drawn on Loch Katrine water, giving a delicate spirit that ages oak first. An Oloroso sherry cask shaped it, aged in open contact with air to build a nutty, dried fruit depth. A decade and a half in oak knits cask and spirit, building a creamy, sweet make. Filled at around sixty eight percent, the spirit slowly drew colour and sweetness from the wood.

At a full 48.4% it is deep and strong. The Oloroso lends fig, raisin and a walnut depth, while lignin gives vanilla, oak lactones lend a soft coconut, and a creme brulee and butterscotch note, across a soft, fruity grain backbone. The palate is gentle, sweet and slow, with no rough edges. The finish is long and softly drying. This is a quiet farewell to a two hundred year old distillery.