Douglas Laing MasterClass – Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

On the evening of 29th July 2021, Belfast Whiskey Week's Session 76 brought one of Scotland's most respected independent bottlers into living rooms and dram dens across the globe. The Douglas Laing MasterClass was a proper deep dive — six carefully chosen expressions, each one a testament to what a family business with over seven decades of cask-hunting instinct can pull from Scotland's distilling landscape.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples & Glass and will take place on the 29th @ 18:00.

This tasting comprises of:

For those in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Europe, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, you will be able to save on delivery costs by having your package to sent to a localised depot for collection. You will be charged a small fee upon collection, but the cost will be much cheaper than having packs delivered to individual addresses. If you would like to avail of this option, please make a note in the Special Instructions box, and we will contact you at a later date to arrange this and refund your delivery charges.

Looking Back

There are independent bottlers, and then there is Douglas Laing. Family-run since 1948, the Glasgow operation has spent three generations learning which casks are worth pursuing and which are worth leaving well alone. That accumulated wisdom — the seanchas of the scotch whisky world, you might say — was on full display across this masterclass, and those who attended came away with a markedly richer understanding of what independent bottling at its finest actually means.

The lineup was bold and considered in equal measure. Things opened gently with the Streathearn Single Malt Batch 001, a rare sighting from one of Scotland's smallest distilleries, before the session moved into the more familiar territory of the Old Particular Bruichladdich 15 Year Old Single Cask — a coastal dram with that unmistakable Islay character softened beautifully by time. The Timorous Beastie 21 Year Old Sherry Edition arrived mid-flight like a well-timed story from a good seanchaí — rich, warming, and full of layers that kept revealing themselves long after the glass was set down. Douglas Laing's Remarkable Regional Malts range, of which Timorous Beastie is a proud standard-bearer, continues to make an eloquent case for Highland whisky as a category of real depth and diversity.

The Old Particular Glenrothes 15 Year Old Single Cask — Christmas Edition brought a Speyside sweetness that felt almost indulgent for July, while the headline act — the Timorous Beastie 40 Year Old Cask Strength, Limited Edition — drew the kind of reverent silence that a dram of that age and rarity deserves. Forty years in a cask is a commitment. That it emerged so vital and complex is a tribute both to Glenrothes's distilling and to Douglas Laing's patience and judgement. The session closed with the Big Peat Peatrichor Edition 2021, a smoky, characterful blend of Islay malts that sent everyone off with peat reek in their nostrils and a smile behind their masks — or screens, as 2021 demanded.

For those who explored the wider BWW 2021 programme, this masterclass sat comfortably alongside other landmark sessions. Fans of Irish whiskey heritage, for instance, would have found much to enjoy in the Session 83: Bushmills History MasterClass, while those drawn to the craft of distilling could follow a rich thread through to the Session 50: Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass. The breadth of the 2021 programme — Scotch and Irish, blends and single malts, history and innovation — is well worth exploring on our Whiskey Map.

The Douglas Laing MasterClass reminded us that independent bottling is not a footnote to the whisky story — it is a vital part of it. These are the custodians who seek out the exceptional, give it a name, and share it. Slàinte mhath to that, and to every drop in those six fifty-millilitre samples.

The Brand: Douglas Laing

Family-run since 1948, Douglas Laing hunts down exceptional Scotch whisky casks. Their Remarkable Regional Malts range covers Scotland with real depth.

More from Belfast Whiskey Week

• Session 83: Bushmills History (MasterClass)
• Session 1: Bushmills New Cask Finish Range (Introduction)
• Session 2: Bushmills Core Malts (Introduction)
• Session 22: Sexton Deconstruction (Showcase)
• Session 23: Bushmills Cask strength (Mini-MasterClass)
• Session 50: Bushmills Causeway Collection (MasterClass)

Explore the full programme on the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map.

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