Old Malt Cask Platinum Series

by **Deactivated Member** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:48 pm

I've seen these bottlings around, they certainly look very respectable, and all seem to be of respactable (and considerable) age. The Douglas Laing website nor other sources give much information about these bottlings, sadly.

Does anyone have further information regarding this range? Do the barrels selected represent a specific selection, or is the name Platinum only there to represent the fact that they are rather old?

Must say, I've never tasted any poor Douglas Laing O.M.C. whisky, and may this statement hopefully reach the bottlers' ears. Thank you for a selection of very enjoyable whiskies.

The above is actually why I find myself awfully tempted to purchase a bottle or two from the Platinum range before they are all gone, but the price and age of whisky (I do belong into the school of thought that lengthy ageing does not necessarily automatically mean better whisky) makes one think rather carefully prior to such a venture.

If anyone can offer further information, I would be much obliged, as they say.

by **lbacha** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:52 pm

They are usually older bottles that are bottled at cask strength, which makes them impressive because most OMC bottlings are 50% ABV.

The first Port Ellen I tried was a platnum series bottled last year, and it was great. I wanted to get a bottle to drink but the price was alittle high (235 euros). It was great whisky though.

Len

by **lbacha** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:54 pm

Oh yeah

I have also tried a couple other Platinum series bottles and they were all very good.

Len

by **kildalton** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:52 am

I read that some old ardbegs were great...

by **Wave** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:59 am

I've also heard that the '77 Brora Platinum series were good too which prompted to buy one last summer.
Haven't tried it yet, so many whiskies so little time. :wink:

Cheers!

by **Di Blasi** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:53 am

The Platinum Old and Rare series is their top bottling range, and yes, very good indeed! They generally tend to be older, and always cask strength and from a single cask. The one I've had is the MacDuff, distilled in '67 and 35 years old if I remember correctly. The new presentation is a wooden box, and I'm sure it still also comes with an authenticating cerificate. They aren't cheap, but they're excellent, and quite special.

by **Deactivated Member** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:17 am

Wave wrote:I've also heard that the '77 Brora Platinum series were good too which prompted to buy one last summer.
Haven't tried it yet, so many whiskies so little time.

I have one of these in waiting, too--bought it two years ago at The Whisky Shop in Inverness. It's one of those bottles you don't want to open on a whim.

by **susywong** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:23 am

Hi Guys,

The Old & Rare Platinum Selection are what we consider our "creme de la creme" of whiskies. The OMC is our core range, but occasionally we come across whiskies that are of exceptional quality. These whiskies are then considered for the Platinum range.

We do not take a commercial view, we base the Platinum selection purely on the quality of the Whisky. In recent years we have bottled Caperdonich, Glencadam, Macduff, Glenallachie alongside Macallan, Brora, Ardbeg and Port Ellen. Some well known and some not so well known. some people have questioned why we bottle "little known" whiskies but it's because we at Douglas Laing feel that the Platinum selection are examples of truly excellent casks!!

- i'll stop plugging the company now, shall i?? :wink:

Cheers!
Susan

by **Di Blasi** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:08 pm

Great work Susan! Thanks for the added info! Keep it up!

by **Deactivated Member** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:45 pm

Thank you very much Susan for taking the time to give this kind explanation. It isn't always easy to find out precise information regarding independent bottler's various ranges, so I for one appreciate the information very very much.

As I stated, I have personally been rather impressed by the quality (and the consistency of it) when it comes to the bottlings of OMC. The bottlings have proven rather a 'safe bet' so to speak.

With the platinum series, the bottlings are already that 'dear' for me with a limited budget at least that some serious thinking (not to mention coming up with a very good reasoning for the better half) is required before making a purchase. :wink:

I wonder if the Brora is still available, or will there be any more Brora's coming out in this series..?

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:07 pm

Good to hear these are exceptional casks thanks Susy.

I got my hand on 2 bottles of The Old & Rare Platinum Selection

A 34yo Lochnagar and a 35yo Clynelish and both for very reasonable prices.

Really looking forward to opening them at some stage

by **Douglaslaing** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:30 pm

Good afternoon MRJ,

Your message posted on this forum last night regarding our Old Malt Cask
(OMC) Platinum series was shown to me earlier this morning - we do try to
keep up with as many of the whisky forums that we can.

The Platinum range, now generally known as Old and Rare is in fact a
selection of whiskies where age is not the predominant factor but where the quality of the whisky, in our opinion, is the ultimate that a cask from that particular Distillery can achieve.

Every morning at 8 o'clock my brother and I taste various whiskies that have been called forward from our warehouse to approve for forthcoming bottlings for OMC and Provenance and very rarely for Platinum - if that sample is of such exceptional quality, in our opinion, we will bottle it as Platinum and of course as our name appears on the label the responsibility for the choice is our own - we stand or fall by our decision and I am glad to say that most people seem to approve of what we bottle and offer.

Accordingly at this moment there are about 10 Platinum Old and Rare's on
offer, see our web site http://www.dougalslaing.com but with the small quantity of whisky from these casks there are not too many cases available and they do go out of stock very quickly - of course we hope to find suitable
replacements but there is no guarantee.

We appreciate your kind comments on OMC and Platinum and be assured that my brother and I will continue to endeavour to supply top quality Single Cask bottlings to our customers.

We rely on whisky people like yourself to appreciate and to enjoy and thank you for your support.

In good spirits
Stewart H Laing
Director
Douglas Laing and Co. Ltd.

by **Deactivated Member** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:39 pm

Mr Laing, I'm sure I will not be alone in thanking you for checking in here--hearing things from those close to the source of our delight is very much appreciated. And I'm sure you know that your company and its products are held in the highest regard by those of us who love whisky.

Susy's really cool, too.

Douglaslaing wrote:Every morning at 8 o'clock my brother and I taste various whiskies....

Oh man....

by **TheLaddie** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:14 pm

Douglaslaing wrote:be assured that my brother and I will continue to endeavour to supply top quality Single Cask bottlings to our customers.

Please do. I've enjoyed a good number of OMC bottlings and never tasted a dud. I understand Susan will be bringing some corkers down to Bawtry in a fortnight. The anticipation is killing me...

A pleasure to hear from you. Keep up the good work.

by **Deactivated Member** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:54 pm

It is quite an honour to get responses directly from the source, so to speak.

Thank you very much Mr. Laing and Susan for taking the time and writing replies to my original post, as well as bottling such good whiskies for us enthusiasts to enjoy!

by **Deactivated Member** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:07 pm

Nice thread with splendid replies. I hope Mr Laing and Suzy continue to pop in with the expert's view - it keeps us all on the right track.

I have a Platinum O & R Tomatin 40yo. I should drink it but just can't bring myself to do so. One day though. One day

by **Frodo** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:38 pm

M.R.J. wrote:It is quite an honour to get responses directly from the source, so to speak.

Thank you very much Mr. Laing and Susan for taking the time and writing replies to my original post, as well as bottling such good whiskies for us enthusiasts to enjoy!

What he said!

by **parvus** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:01 am

Greetings Stewart,

Thank you for taking time to post here, it is much appreciated. I'm looking forward to seeing your brother at Dramfest in February!

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:14 pm

Therre was a slight typo on the website.

Correct website address is

http://www.douglaslaing.com/

by **Ize** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:33 pm

I wish I would be rich ...

by **corbuso** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:32 pm

Douglaslaing wrote:Good afternoon MRJ,

Your message posted on this forum last night regarding our Old Malt Cask
(OMC) Platinum series was shown to me earlier this morning - we do try to
keep up with as many of the whisky forums that we can.

The Platinum range, now generally known as Old and Rare is in fact a
selection of whiskies where age is not the predominant factor but where the quality of the whisky, in our opinion, is the ultimate that a cask from that particular Distillery can achieve.

We appreciate your kind comments on OMC and Platinum and be assured that my brother and I will continue to endeavour to supply top quality Single Cask bottlings to our customers.

We rely on whisky people like yourself to appreciate and to enjoy and thank you for your support.

In good spirits
Stewart H Laing
Director
Douglas Laing and Co. Ltd.

Dear Stewart, Dear Susan,
It is always very nice to see some posts from the Douglais Laing company and It is always a pleasure of tasting your excellent whiskies, both in the Platinum and OMC range. Hopefully, your website will be soon as nice as the whisky you bottle.
The new packaging of the Platinum is nicer than before and more in line with the price of the bottles.
In your post, you mention that quality comes before age for the Platinum range. However, I have never seen a 14 or 17 Years old whisky bottled in that range? Will it happen soon?
The OMC range offers some superb whiskies, and I have to say that I buy more OMC bottles than Platinum bottles. One of the current trend in the industry is the switch from the green to the white bottles? Are you going to follow that trend? As a consumer, depending on the distillery, I might prefer a first fill sherry to a second fill sherry or vice-versa. In the OMC range, I can't find the information on the label and the glass might not allow to make the difference.

I wish you both a lot of success and good sales for 2007!
Slainthe

Corbuso
.............
http://www.whisky-news.com

by **Frodo** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:58 pm

corbuso wrote:...and It is always a pleasure of tasting your excellent whiskies, both in the Platinum and OMC range.

It is also a pleasure tasting the Provenance line and King of Scots Blended (my price point).

by **susywong** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi Corbuso,

thanks for your comments, on the website and the green flint bottles. We're in the process of re-designing our website, so in less than 6 weeks you'll be able to see the all singing, all dancing DL site!! :lol:

As for the green flint, the pics on the website are pretty old. In the OMC range we stopped using the green flint at least 4 years ago, and in the OLD AND RARE (PLATINUM) we introduced the clear flint bottle when we introduced the new wooden box, in Dec 2005. There are obviously still green flint OMC and PLATINUM bottles on the market which would have been bought by retailers before the re-design!

Always happy to help,
Susy