Port Dundas 45 Years Old 1978 Cask #17552 (Douglas Laing)

Douglas Laing bottled this Port Dundas grain matured to 45 year old, from 1978, drawn from cask 17552 and bottled at 49.9%. The outturn was 106 bottles. Once Scotland's largest distillery in its prime, Port Dundas was dating to 1811 in the heart of Glasgow's blending trade before being wound down by Diageo in 2010. Glasgow was the blending heart of Scotland, and its output flowed into the famous houses.

Port Dundas made its whisky from unpeated wheat with a little malted barley, worked through continuous patent stills to give a light bodied spirit of real finesse. Ex-Bourbon American oak held the spirit, gentle wood that flatters light grain. At such an age it is a rare, deeply oaked grain, mellow, oily and fine. Grain enters the cask light and clean, so the wood's character shows clearly against it.

At 49.9% it is big and oily. The lactones add coconut, vanillin from the lignin gives vanilla, and a rich toffee and fudge note, with grain sweetness running underneath. Water is rarely needed, the spirit already soft and open. A creamy, lingering finish rounds it off. This is a taste of Glasgow grain that can no longer be made.