Hunter Laing

Hunter Laing & Co was set up by Stewart Laing and his sons Andrew and Scott after the family's old firm, Douglas Laing & Co, was divided between the two branches of the family. Stewart Laing took several of the established ranges with him, and the company has since grown into one of the better known independent bottlers in Scotland. The family has also built its own distillery, Ardnahoe, on Islay.

Like most independent bottlers, Hunter Laing buys casks of whisky from distilleries and brokers rather than distilling the spirit itself for these ranges. It selects casks and bottles them, often as single casks with the cask number on the label, which is why so many of its bottlings carry a distillery name, a vintage and a cask reference. Its bottlings are generally presented without added colouring and without chill filtration.

The ranges a buyer meets most often are Old Malt Cask, usually single casks reduced to around 50%, and The First Editions, also single casks from a wide spread of distilleries. Old & Rare, including the Platinum selection, holds the oldest and scarcest casks at cask strength. Hepburn's Choice, bottled under the Langside name, offers younger single casks at a gentler price, while The Kinship and the Journey series (such as Islay Journey) are special selections and blended malts.

The distilleries in our catalogue range widely, from Speyside names such as Craigellachie, Mortlach, Benrinnes, Auchroisk, Inchgower, Glenburgie and Braeval to Fettercairn and the Invergordon grain distillery, along with Islay malts. For a buyer, Hunter Laing is a good way to taste distilleries that are rarely bottled officially, and the cask details on the label let you compare one cask with another.