@Slainte-Mhath Interestingly I just read those two labels were set up by brothers. Hunter Laing split off in 2013 as Stewart Laing wanted a business for his family.

@Slainte-Mhath I have a 51 year Dumbarton sample which I'm looking forward to. I really enjoyed the 40 year Executive Decision by them as well. Their old particular label i haven't had much luck with. I seem to have sampled a lot more Hunter Laing over the years it seems looking at my notes.

@Soba45 I really like Douglas Laing's XOP range, although this specimen seems to be a less impressive example. I have a 30yo Caol Ila and 22yo Mortlach XOP tucked away for special occasions. Really nice presentation, and usually the quality of the liquid inside is superb.

@cascode In fact just about all of the old ones are gone now unless you are willing to pay thousands for a bottle (and even then most aren't easily available). Port Ellen, Brora, Convalmore and Banff are the only ones I could get a sample of..... which if I win lotto I'll do :-)

@cascode Yeah I have a list of old distilleries I haven't tried and look out for samples on MoM. Most if not all those which closed that long ago (80's I believe) are grain as I'm not willing to pay $100usd + for a sample of the single malt like Brora, Port Ellen. I still have a few others lying around Pittyvaich, Port Dundas to try but I think after that that'll be it for me for the closed ones!

@Scott_E @PBMichiganWolverine I guess it depends what the purpose of the distillery was. In the old days it was all about blends and this was one of the many lowland grain distilleries build for efficiency rather than uniqueness so when it's owners got into financial trouble it was gone (along with a number of others). Any distillery which wasn't unique enough to need to be retained to support the blend requirement was vulnerable if not financially viable (or even if it was but it's owners ran into financial trouble and couldn't offload it in an over supplied market) and one thing about grain whiskies is they are definitely not unique! Uniqueness didn't make single malts completely safe though as if blenders thought they could more cost effectively substitute and get away with it they did which meant the loss of some great ones. As is always the case I guess multiple factors at play and as you say the character, uniqueness or how good they was was definitely a prominant one :-).

@PBMichiganWolverine I totally agree with the Law of Closed Distilleries. If they produced stuff that people wanted or was good enough for blending, they would still be around.

Wondering if this succumbed to Darwin’s law...simply wasn’t good enough to stay alive during the bad times

Wow, that’s a very rare find!