CALEDONIAN DREAMING: LOCH LOMOND 28 YEAR OLD SINGLE GRAIN SCOTCH WHISKY
Single Grain. 100% Malted Barley. Both True.
The Grain Whisky Made Entirely From Malt
Here is the quirk that makes this bottle worth understanding. It is classified as single grain, yet it is distilled from 100% malted barley. The same grain that goes into single malt. What makes it grain whisky is not the cereal, it is the still. Loch Lomond runs this spirit through a continuous Coffey still rather than copper pot stills, and under Scotch whisky law that makes it grain.
So you get the richness and fruit of an all-malt mash, carried in the lighter, creamier frame that only a continuous still produces. Most grain whisky leans on wheat or maize. This one never does. Two sister casks, distilled the very same day and matured side by side for 28 years, were combined for this release.
Found during our warehouse move. Two bottles remain.
Loch Lomond is one of the most unusual distilleries in Scotland, built to make many different spirit styles on a single site. This single grain spent its full 28 years maturing in ex-bourbon casks near the banks of the loch, absorbing soft vanilla, orchard fruit and a creamy texture over nearly three decades of patient ageing.
The result is delicate, creamy and wonderfully fruity, an elegant grain whisky that shows what decades in good bourbon wood can do. Natural colour. Non-chill filtered. True cask strength.
Distillery profile, Loch Lomond
- Located on the southern banks of Loch Lomond at Alexandria, in the Highlands.
- One of the few distilleries that runs both pot stills and continuous stills, allowing it to produce many styles of spirit in one place.
- Its single grain is famously made from 100% malted barley in a Coffey still, which is what sets it apart from the wheat and maize grain whisky most blenders use.
- That all-malt base gives the spirit unusual depth and fruit for a grain whisky, and it rewards very long maturation.
Cask profile, ex-bourbon
Two sister casks, both ex-bourbon, both filled on October 18, 1996, matured side by side and then combined at bottling. Batch reference UC046.
Why ex-bourbon, and why so long. Bourbon wood gives without taking over. Across 28 years it layered vanilla, green apple and soft wood spice onto an already creamy all-malt grain spirit, never masking it. A more active cask would have pushed too hard over this length of time. The patience shows in the texture, a whisky that coats the mouth with apple pie and cream before the oak arrives.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Whisky style | Single grain Scotch whisky (100% malted barley) |
| Region | Highland |
| Distillery | Loch Lomond |
| Age | 28 years |
| ABV | 48% (true cask strength) |
| Volume | 700 ml |
| Batch reference | UC046 (two sister casks) |
| Cask type | Ex-Bourbon |
| Distillation date | October 18, 1996 |
| Bottling date | April 2025 |
| Outturn | 595 bottles worldwide (60 in the US) |
| Non-chill filtered | Yes |
| Natural colour | Yes |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Single Cask & Small Batch: Ensuring a unique profile for each release.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Preserving the authentic character and purity of the whisky.
- Honest Storytelling: Every cask profile, every tasting note, written by people who actually tasted the whisky.
