As with most distilleries @GlenScotia release their whisky after it's matured in oak casks - peated or unpeated spirit matured full term or finished in 1st fill or refill ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-port or ex-wine.
I've picked four of my current bottles here a 7yo, an 8yo, two 9yo, and a
15yo, all at over 55% ABV, all from unpeated spirit and matured in 1st
fill ex-bourbon casks.
| Dram | 2012 7yo Cask #710 |
2013 9yo Cask #47 |
2013 9yo Cask #33 |
2014 8yo Cask #249 |
2005 15yo Cask #810 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics |
57.3% ABV Natural colour, NCF Robbie's Exclusive D: Sep '12, B: Nov '20 |
58.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF 2022 Festival Dinner bottling D: '13, B: '22 |
57.1% ABV Natural colour, NCF Southport Whisky Club D: '13, B: '22 |
55.7% ABV Natural colour, NCF Loch Fyne D: '14, B: '22 |
59.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF Cask Bottling D: '05, B: '20 |
| Distillery notes | Rich syrupy peaches and smooth vanilla cream are followed by candied red apple. Then there is a smooth marzipan and hint of spicy ground ginger to finish. | Fresh cut oak, a little spice, delicate creaminess, hints of pear drop, a little light oil - salt well yes! Buttery vanilla fudge and vibrant fruits alongside a touch of citrus and tangy oak char... Encapsulates the distillery journey to a T. Enjoy! | Nose: a sweet buttery creaminess with a little malt! Robustness; complexity, a little charred timber. Exotic fruits, a little meadow grass and a hint of deck caulking. Palette (I know, but that's what it says on the bottle!): wow! Classic Glen Scotia - a spiciness! Evident oiliness, sweet fruits, a little vanillin, butterscotch, honey, almond dryness with banana and pineapple, a little apple & pear from that original distillate! Even more overarching maritime oils with a comprehensive , Salinity and a little dirty character to finish. |
Layers of golden syrup and creamy vanilla are followed by fresh mango and desiccated coconut. Then there is marzipan and some candied ginger, before sweet peach and delicate oak spices. | None |
| My thoughts: | |||||
| Appearance |
  |
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| Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a hairline crack in the glass, bead up very slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | |
| Nose | Huge sweet tropical fruit notes: banana bread, dried pineapple in icing sugar; some lemon juice. Honey, almonds, vanilla and a little cask char add to the complexity. This has got single grain written all over it. | Lightly charred oak, milk chocolate, salinity, a little closed. A little time and air offers characteristic tropical fruit notes of banana bread, pineapple, mango and kiwi. Citrus zest but no real sweetness. | Again the usual huge tropical fruit notes, milk chocolate, oak and a hint of peppery spice. There is a little honey sweetness, buttered popcorn and some citrus peel. | Oak led with salinity, milk chocolate and tropical fruit hints. Like #47 a little closed to start, time and air offers citrus notes, more tropical fruit and a note of peppery spice. | Buttered popcorn, poached orchard fruit with vanilla custard. There's a gentle salinity, toffee, some oak and an earthiness. The colour suggests something other than ex-bourbon (but maybe that's just the age?) but the nose also suggests marzipan and Christmas cake. |
| Palate |
Smooth buttery arrival quickly followed by a huge gingery spice ABV
kick. Tropical fruit notes - banana, pineapple, mango, coconut and a
little milk chocolate. Very drying. A drop of water increases the sweetness and tones down the spice a little. YUMMY! |
Thick oily arrival, salinity, sweetness and spice: drying seaweed, honey, toffee and ginger spice. Tropical fruit basket on the tongue - pineapple, banana, kiwi, peach and mango - some dryness. A little time and air offers citrus zest, charred oak and more ginger spice. No water required! YUMMY! | Big bite of gingery spice with the first sip, the ABV then settles down a bit to reveal dry oak, stewed orchard fruit and custard. Thick oily mouthfeel gives way to ginger, dried pineapple and chocolate covered marzipan. A little salinity as the liquid disappears. With water there's a little honey sweetness and more dryness. |
Thick oily arrival, seaweed, ginger spice and citrus. There is some tropical fruit here and a little stewed orchard fruit. The milk chocolate from the nose appears alongside more spice - peppery this time. Water adds some sweetness, adds a little dryness but does nothing to keep the spice at bay. |
Smooth thick arrival, salted caramel, honey sweetness and a little dryness to start. Mouthcoating oiliness. There's some peppery spice, charred oak, alongside the marzipan from the nose. The buttered popcorn and orchard fruit are here too alongside some dried fruit, marzipan and black cherries. |
| Finish | Long lingering tropical fruit, ginger spice and dry icing sugar. | Lingering ginger spice, salinity and tropical fruit. | Lingering peppery spice, tropical fruit and dry icing sugar. | Lingering peppery spice, tropical fruit and dry oak. | Lingering bitter citrus, a little salinity and some tropical fruit. |
| Overall |  As an aside: Caol Ila is often said to be coastal and salty but it's new make is tankered to Fife to be filled into casks and matured at Diageo's huge warehousing complex - so where does their salinity come from? Some have suggested it's from the peat, Islay peat has a distinct marine character with notes of iodine, seaweed and kippers, but none of these Glen Scotia whiskies were peated. Springbank whiskies also have a maritime influence and are peated, but their peat comes from Speyside. Springbank have said “We don’t find any maritime or salty notes in new make of Springbank, Longrow, Hazelburn or Kilkerran, yet after a few years in oak, in our warehouses, in Campbeltown, there it is. Everyone here knows that the Campbeltown micro-climate gives our whisky its salty tang. We even find differences between dunnage and racking warehouses. Of course we don’t have any science to back this up, just a few years of experience.” Anyway back to the whiskies: the four younger drams were quite dry but the #810 more juicy. They also shared some citrus notes which was lacking from the #810. I've seen cask #810 and it actually an Ex-Rye (From Clermont Springs Distillery - Jim Beam) rather than Ex-Bourbon cask - that must make some difference? But wouldn't Ex-Rye be more spicy? Maybe the age has calmed it a little? Citrus and almonds (or marzipan) was evident on all of the drams alongside the tropical fruit notes. Orchard fruit appeared on a couple of them and even dried fruit on the older #810. What we have to remember is that fermentation, distillation and maturation are all arts rather than sciences and every cask we get to try will be different - that's a good thing! So for the Ex-Bourbon flight I'm going to order them #810, #710, #47, #249 then #33, I think the sweet spot is somewhere between 7yo and 12yo for Glen Scotia FF ex-bourbon. |
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Ok then so there is some difference in 'plain' ex-bourbon, what if we add some peat to the equation?
I've picked four of my current bottles here a 6yo, 7yo, 12yo and 18yo, all
at around the 60% ABV mark, all from peated spirit and matured in 1st
fill ex-bourbon casks.
| Dram | 2013 6yo Cask #144 |
2013 7yo Cask #92 |
2006 12yo Cask #98 |
2010 8yo Cask #283 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics |
57.8% ABV Natural colour, NCF Medium Peated Friends of The Ardshiel, D: '13, B: Apr '19 |
61.4% ABV Natural colour, NCF Heavily Peated Shop Bottling D: Feb '13, B: Feb '20 |
57.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF Lightly Peated Spirits By Post D: Mar '06, B: Nov '18 |
58.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF Medium Peated Distillery Edn. 007 D: '10, B: '18 |
| Distillery info |
Distinct Campbeltown Glen Scotia confluence! Fantastic sweet peat
nose, sea borne exotic fruits on the palate, peat infused with all
the embracing oiliness and a subtle wind dispersed salinity. |
Smooth, balanced, yet reserved nose - dry summer hay, aromas of
oatmeal, sweet biscuit, oak and dry peat. Palate - Sweet! Balanced dry fruits followed by a creamy oily texture with subtle hints of maritime brine - a classic dram! |
Open on distant peat smoke with vanilla custard and juicy peach. There is some golden syrup and melted brown sugar finishing on delicate cinnamon spice. | A little peat on the nose - creamy on the palate with a fruity sweetness, light oily brine, with balanced vanilla-tinged flavours. |
| My thoughts: | ||||
| Appearance |  |
|||
| Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up very slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Very pale gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack in the glass which eventually bead up and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Pale gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack in the glass which eventually bead up and fall as slow thin oily legs | |
| Nose | A slap in the face by some fresh Campbeltown seaweed. There's a little smoke, some dried pineapple covered in icing sugar and a little citrus zest | Thick earthy peat smoke, sun dried seaweed, poached pears and a little ginger spice. A few swirls release some tropical notes and a little citrus. | Gentle smoke, a little salinity and huge lemon zest notes to start. Then comes tropical fruit, vanilla custard and a little milk chocolate. | Gentle bonfire smoke, sea breeze, vanilla ice cream and some tropical fruit notes. Almost grain like. |
| Palate | Thick and oily on the palate, peat and salt are prominent - vying for control of your taste buds! I
think the peat wins but only just. There's more of the dried pineapple from the nose, a little toffee and some brown sugar adding sweetness. Salted citrus zest and spice as the liquid disappears. Yummy! |
Thick syrupy arrival, honey and brown sugar sweetness with a little salted caramel. Burnt seaweed notes next with a little tropical fruit and sour grapefruit. This one is very drying leaving ginger spice tingling on the lips. | Thick oily arrival, honey, butterscotch and golden syrup give a sweetness, the most of all the drams in this set. Lemon comes next - bonbons, drizzle cake, meringue pie - they are all here. The salinity is very noticeable, the peat smoke less so but it's still here. There's a little tropical fruit which gives a drying note as the liquid disappears leaving tingling lips from the spice. YUMMY! | Thick sweet oily arrival, golden syrup and brown sugar. There' a little citrus, a little smoke and bucketfuls of tropical fruit. Pineapple, mango, kiwi and banana are all here. There's some dry peach or apricot and a little salted caramel ice cream. Again the lips are tingling as the liquid disappears. Yummy! |
| Finish | The smoke dominates - long and lingering, a little spice and the seaweed is back - Yummy! | Lingering sweetness and spice with a little salinity and gentle smoke. | Lingering citrus, ginger spice, tropical fruit and a little smoke. | Lingering sweetness and spice with fruit, a little salinity and gentle smoke. |
| Overall | So add a little peat to the mixture and things change quite a lot - the salinity is evident in all the drams, peating levels vary and so does the amount of smoke in each of these. Glen Scotia distil from peated barley for 1 month of each year, filling only 400 casks with peated spirit. There are PPM ranges for each spirit type: Lightly Peated (LP) is 1-19PPM, Medium Peated (MP) is 20-30PPM and heavily Peated (HP) is 30-55.5PPM but they normally aim for 16%, 25% and 54%. In any one year's production they'll only use two of the three peating levels. For me it seems that the higher the PPM the lighter the resulting spirit, time in the cask adds colour, but comparing the 6yo #144 and 7yo #92 the later is far paler. The obvious peat note you get from these drams is an earthy sweetness, the peat is from Speyside not Islay, we don't have any of the Iodine medicinal type notes you'd get from Islay peat. There is a lot more salinity in these drams than in the unpeated, does the salinity we get from the spirit or the peat? Reading the panel above again I've talked myself out of that! #144 is a little young, rough around the edges and very spicy but it's a yummy dram, displaying all of the typical Glen Scotia DNA wrapped up in a blanket of smoke. #92 had the highest peating level, it was noticeable on the nose but not so much on the palate and finish. again all the typical DNA notes with a bigger bite of spice. #98 was wonderful - all the DNA notes turned up to 11, especially the sweetness and citrus and just that hint of earthy peat smoke in the background. #283's age has refined all the flavours a little, they are muddled but not dulled, complexity which needs time to decipher. Again all of the DNA is here just a little different from it's younger peated siblings. A number of noticeable difference between the unpeated and peated ex-bourbon drams was the lack of any need to add water to the peated ones. As I've said above some of the unpeated drams benefitted from a little water, I didn't feel the need to add any to the peated ones. Next the spice - all of the peated drams left my lips tingling with a gingery / citrusy / salty spice as the liquid disappeared. Yummy! So for the Peated Ex-Bourbon flight I'm going to order them #98, #144, #283, then #92 |
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Ok then let's really mess around now, how about some PX?
| Dram | 2014 8yo Cask #21/655-8 |
2010 11yo Cask #19/380-9 |
2016 6yo Cask #3393 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 55.6% ABV Natural colour, NCF 5mth FF PX Hogshead Finish D: '14, B: '22 Robbie's |
52.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF 2yr FF PX Hogshead Finish D: Mar '10, B: Apr '21 Callander Drinks |
61.4% ABV Natural colour, NCF Full term FF PX D: '16, B: '21 |
|
Distillery notes |
Nose: Fresh vanilla pod and lemon posset are followed by red apple and sweet caramel sauce. Palate: Candied citrus peels, peach and sugar almonds. Finish: Long and moreish. |
Opens with sweet peat smoke, salted caramel and juicy golden raisins. Baked red apple and warming cinnamon spice are wonderfully balanced with spicy ginger and sweet clove to finish. | 6 years Full term FF PX |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |  |
||
| Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up very slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up very slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | |
| Nose | Musty old bookshop to start, some toffee apple, lemon zest and brown sugar. This is followed by a little tropical fruit and some salinity. | Toffee apple and lemon zest again on this one, the salinity is a little more forward and there is a gentle note of peat smoke. Some dried fruit and cinnamon notes. | Berries, brown sugar, caramel and citrus to start. A little different to the previous two, the PX has obviously had longer and is more evident, some dunnage hints in the background. |
| Palate | Thick spicy arrival, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Brown sugar and honey add sweetness, dried fruit, dates and figs give body. The spice continues with cloves until the liquid disappears leaving a dry sherbet note and hints of sour grapefruit. | Another thick spicy arrival much more balanced with sweetness and dried fruit. The longer finish making itself known. The GS salinity is still here as was noted in the peated ex-bourbon drams - interesting! Salted caramel, some tropical fruit and sour citrus round things off. Nice! | Thick sweet arrival, the spice is very tame on this one, the PX all but covering the GS DNA salinity and tropical fruit notes. There is a little salinity. The berries from the note are back with dates, figs, black cherries and dried fruit. Honey, brown sugar and butterscotch give sweetness. |
| Finish | Lingering spice, honey and sour citrus. | Spice and smoke linger with a honey sweetness and dried fruit. | Lingering sweetness, dried fruit and a little salinity. |
| Overall | PX sherry tends to be sweet with darker flavours like toffee, fig, raisin, and molasses giving dunnage funk and sweetness.  The first two drams were finishes, one short the other much longer but neither could compare to the PX influence of full term maturation. Unfortunately again the GS DNA is difficult to find, the PX has taken over. That's not a bad thing but you'd be hard pushed to identify any of these as GS if tried blind. So for the PX flight I'm going to order them #3393, #19/380-9 then #21/655-8. |
||
There are other sherries, how about some Oloroso?
| Dram | 2014 8yo Cask #21/655-2 | 2002 17yo Cask #493 | 2002 18yo Cask #486 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 56.2% ABV Natural colour, NCF FF Oloroso Hogshead finish D: '14, BL '22 Royal Mile Whiskies | 51.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF 3rdF Oloroso Butt D: 28 Oct '02, B: Nov '19 Southport Whisky Festival 2020 | 48.7% ABV Natural colour, NCF 3rdF Oloroso Butt D: 28 Oct '02, B: '20 Online Dunnage Tasting 2020 |
| Distillery notes | Opens with honeyed raisins and sultanas. There is sweet clementine and candied ginger before ripe cherries, liquorice and vanilla oak spice. | Sweet runny honey and dried fruit followed by warming cinnamon and spicy ginger. There are layers of vanilla toffee and butterscotch finishing with delicate oak tannins. | None |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |  | ||
| Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thick oily legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a very thin line, beads up slowly and falls as slow thin oily legs. | Very dark gold / bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a very thin line, beads up very slowly and fall as slow thick oily legs. | |
| Nose | Very Glen Scotia Ex-Bourbon DNA like - tropical fruit, dried seaweed, a little citrus. Honey, almonds and vanilla add to that picture. | Straight into sherry bomb Christmas Cake territory here - some dunnage mustiness, blueberry jam, dried fruit, dates, fig, black cherries. There is a little salinity but the tropical fruit and citrus DNA notes have gone. | Very similar to #493 but all of the sherry notes have increased in intensity. Some balsamic vinegar notes too. Again there is a little salinity but the tropical fruit and citrus DNA notes have gone. |
| Palate | Thick oily arrival, sweetness and spice to start: honey, toffee and ginger spice. Tropical fruit notes: pineapple, banana, kiwi, peach and mango; then the salinity takes a poke at your tongue. This is where the oloroso finish adds a little to the dram - some berry jammy notes, a little chocolate and some walnuts. Nice! | Thick syrupy arrival, salted caramel, berries, dried fruit, dry sherry. Strawberries and blackberries give some sweetness, blueberries give some dryness. A very gentle dram suited to a winter's night in front of an open fire! Like the nose the tropical fruit, citrus and some of the salinity have gone. There's a little peppery spice on the tongue as the liquid disappears. | Like the nose it's very similar to it's younger sibling #493, the sherry dryness is a little more prominent and the spice has been turned down a little. The salinity is all but gone, this is sweeter. There is some milk chocolate covered raisins, a little orange, marzipan, walnuts and black cherries make a surprise appearance. Yummy! |
| Finish | Lingering sweet tropical fruit, a little salinity and a gentle ginger spice. | Lingering balsamic vinegar drizzled on strawberries, chocolate and a little peppery spice. | Lingering sweet berries, milk chocolate and orange segments. |
| Overall | Oloroso sherries tend to have a rich dark flavour in which I find caramel, walnut and dark fruit giving dryness and spice. The first dram, #655-2 was a short finish - somewhere around 6 months, the other two were both full term 3rd fill oloroso casks. #655-2 tried really hard to hide any oloroso influence - there was a little detectable on the palate but otherwise this was a typical ex-bourbon Glen Scotia. maybe a little sweeter? #493 & #486 were both from the same 28th October 2002 distillation but bottled a year apart! Obviously a lot of similarities, the older one is just a little more intense and a little further away from the Glen Scotia DNA. The DNA just isn't here on the last two - it might have been a 3rd fill cask they were matured in but it's covered all the tropical fruit, citrus and some of the salinity. Is that a bad thing? No not really, they were both lovely drams, I paid £75 for a 17yo Single Cask Glen Scotia - amazing value! So for the Oloroso flight I'm going to order them #655-2, #486 then #493 but only because the older ones lost the GS DNA. | ||
| Dram | 2008 10yo Cask #17/416-8 | 2005 13yo Cask #17/413-10 | 2004 18yo Cask #19/57/73 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 56.3% ABV Natural colour, NCF MP 18m FF Oloroso Hogshead finish D: '08, B: Nov '18 | 55.6% ABV Natural colour, NCF HP FF 12m Oloroso Hogshead finish D: 21 Mar '05, B: Apr '18 Loch Fyne | 50.9% ABV Natural colour, NCF HP RF 36m Oloroso Hogshead finish 2022 Festival Bottling |
| Distillery notes | Rich sherry and peat base. Sweet oily with bergamot develops into lemon drizzle cake with a salty hue. A classic peated Campbeltown whisky. | Opens on fiery peat with creamy oak vanilla blossom honey and layers of brown sugar. There is some juicy pineapple and orange marmalade finishing with a delicate ginger spiciness. | Initially rich robust oily peaty influence, subtle clementine citrus, salinity, a little dry dirty appeal. Huge regionality, distant refill tropical notes, Sweetness - butter scotch, toffee brittle, caramel popcorn. Complexity that keeps evolving! |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |  | ||
| Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. | Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thick oily legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up slowly and fall as slow thick oily legs. | |
| Nose | Huge salty peat smoke notes to start, burnt toffee, berries, liquorice and a little citrus. Easily the most salinity I've ever had in a GS dram! Loads of smoke! | The peat smoke is here, along with the berries and toffee but the salinity has been toned down a bit. Lots of orange zest, fresh flowers and a little dunnage funk. | Thick peat smoke, engine oil, drying seaweed and blueberry jam. A few swirls in the glass and you are tempted by tropical fruit, citrus and berries. maybe a bit subdued compared to the previous two? |
| Palate | Thick spicy arrival, lots of dirty peat smoke (think Ledaig rubber, petrol, tarmac type stuff). Sweet salted caramel, honeycomb, honey. The oloroso finish offers berries, milk chocolate and some dried fruit. Dried seaweed and a bite of peppery spice. | Oily arrival with spice and smoke, then there's a strange sour off note - sour grapefruit? Tropical fruit and honey give a sweetness, alongside dry smoke and sour citrus. This is a very strange one, blind I'd never have guessed GS - it's lost all of it's DNA. Not good. | Very smooth oily arrival, salty and sweet at the same time with a blanket of peat smoke. Blueberry jam, dates, plums, black cherries. as well as a basket of tropical fruit: pineapple, mango and kiwi. There's some almond notes and a little balsamic vinegar. Drying as the liquid disappears - leaves an spicy ashy note on the tongue. |
| Finish | Long sweet and smoky finish with a little salt and spice. | Sour citrus, perfume and smoke. | Lingering ginger spice, salinity and peat smoke with berries and almonds. |
| Overall | As with the ex-bourbon a little peat changes the landscape! #416-8 and #413-10 were 'only' medium peated but the smoke notes mostly took over the sherry influence. #416-8 had a long finish and the oloroso has had a nice impact on the liquid. Maybe peat and Oloroso work but a lot of the GS DNA has gone missing. Lovely dram though. #17/413-10 lets just not talk about this one ever again... #19/57/73 was the 2022 Festival Bottling, available at the Distillery Shop during the Campbeltown Malts Festival. Like #416-8 the mixture of peat and Oloroso gives a Ledaig feel to the dram: dirty! But is it Glen Scotia? Blind I'd probably never have guessed. For me the mixture of peat and Oloroso delivered a nice dram but most of the Glen Scotia DNA had been overwritten. Maybe a shorter finish would be better? So for the Peated Oloroso flight I'm going to order them #416-8, #57/73 then #413-10. | ||
Finally lets go for some Port?
I've picked three of my current bottles here a 5yo, 18yo and 14yo, all
matured in 1st fill ex-bourbon casks and finished in Port. The two Ruby
Port are unpeated, the Tawny is Heavily Peated.
| Dram |
2015 5yo Cask #21/77-2 Whisky Shop Exclusive |
2003 18yo Cask #2018/694/79 |
2005 14yo Cask #2017/413-6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics |
55.8% ABV Natural colour, NCF Ruby Port (6 mths) D: '15, B: Aug '21 |
57.5% ABV Natural colour, NCF Ruby Port (3 years) D: '03, B: Mar '22 |
57.8% ABV, Natural colour, NCF Heavily Peated Tawny Port (2 years) D: '05, B: '19 |
| Distillery info |
This expression spent six years maturing in a first fill ruby port
hogshead before being bottled at cask strength 55.8%. It is free
from chill filtration and artificial colour The nose is full of vibrant red berries with hints of spiced vanilla and candied orange peel. The palate comes with juicy red apple which leads into a gentle spicy finish. |
Top notes of syrupy melons, pink marshmallows, blood orange, toasted oak with vanilla infused ice cream. Develops into the richer notes dark chocolate and stewed plum jam, this is complemented by complex viscous oils, a pink of maritime salt and a little seaborne spice. A complex funky array of flavours all encapsulated in that typical Glen Scotia Campbeltown style! | 18mths Tawny Port cask |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |
|
||
| Reddy gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and take a while to fall as slow thin legs. | Reddy gold in the glass, a little darker than the 5yo, swirls cling as a thick line, bead up slowly and take a while to fall as slow thick legs. | Dark reddy bronze in the glass, swirls leave a thin line in the glass which take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thick legs. | |
| Nose | Red berries, milk chocolate, vanilla and a hint of citrus. This one is quite closed initially, takes a bit of time to open up. | A much 'thicker' nose, treacle, red fruit and a hint of dunnage funk. Again some chocolate and vanilla. | Again a 'thick' nose, treacle, red fruit, peat smoke and a little salinity. Berries to the fore here: blueberries, redcurrants, strawberries, raspberries. There's some darker fruit here too - black cherries and |
| Palate | Thick sweet arrival, a little oily, a little salinity then loads of red fruit. Honey and caramel offer some sweetness. There's a sour citrus undernote and a bite of peppery spice as the liquid disappears. A little young maybe? |
Another thick sweet arrival, again oily but this one has much more
salinity. The berries are back along with the sour citrus and the
peppery spice. There's some orange zest notes on this one too. Yummy! |
Thick sweet arrival, peat smoke, maritime salinity and berries flood over the tongue. There's notes of toffee (strawberry Toffos even!), honey and gentle spice. Oily and mouthcoating - YUMMY! |
| Finish | Medium length berries, dry oak and peppery spice. | Lingering peppery spice, berries and sour citrus. | Lingering berries, salinity, peat smoke and gentle spice. |
| Overall |
The 5yo hasn't been full term in Ruby Port, the cask number shows
it was recasked for it's finish in 2021, the finish was actually 6
months. It is young but the short finish in a first fill
ruby Port cask has had a noticeable effect on both colour and
taste. The 18yo is obviously older and has had a longer Port finish, it just seems more rounded. The 14yo is a different beast altogether, Tawny rather than Ruby, giving a more fruit led dram and of course it's peated offering lovely smoke notes on the nose, palate and finish. To be honest it also showed the most Glen Scotia salinity funk too. There are many more Port finished Glen Scotia's but most of them seem to go abroad. If you can get one give it a try! So for the Port flight I'm going to order them #413-6, #694/79 then #77-2. |
||
First of all what have I missed? The most obvious ones are Rum and Wine maturations. I'm not a huge Rum fan - the drams always come across as overly sweet for me. I'm not sure Glen Scotia have released any Single Cask Rum maturations? There's been a finished Festival Edition and there's a new Double Cask Core Range Rum Finish coming soon. I've tried a couple of Wine maturations, there's a bottle of #395-2 on my shelf a medium peated Bordeaux Red Wine Cigar cask with a 12m finish but it's not open yet!
Ok a great set of 21 drams, but where would I rank them? It's very difficult to argue with Iain that 'plain' First Fill Ex-Bourbon is where the Glen Scotia spirit is best, but them you try some peated and think - "ooh that's yummy!" Add some Oloroso, maybe peated or some PX and you'd say the same thing but you do start to loose the GS DNA a little. Then you try some Port and it trumps the sherry. You go back and try some 'plain' First Fill Ex-Bourbon and you wonder why you were messing with anything else!
Whisky is all about memories - those that you recall when nosing and tasting a dram as well as those you make when drinking a dram in a certain place with certain people.
For me #413-6 Tawny Port is always going to be my favourite Glen Scotia, it was the first cask I opened, drew liquid from, tasted and then filled a bottle. #810 comes a pretty close 2nd, #560 (not included in this flight because you just can't get it anymore) probably sits in 3rd. #144 in 4th and #3393 in 5th.
Huge thanks to Iain and the team at Glen Scotia for distilling these drams for us to enjoy!
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Geeky Stuff:
Following an 'instruction' from the SWA, Glen Scotia like some other
distilleries, have moved away from calling 'finished' whiskies Single Cask
as they've obviously been in more than one cask. Glen Scotia now label
such whiskies 'Limited Editions'
The cask numbers are made up of three parts:
Cask #21/77-2
Cask #2018/694/79
Cask #2017/413-6
Year / Operation /- Activity
1: Year (sometimes just the last two digits) that the whisky was filled
into the finishing cask.
2: The distillery operation number for that year (operations include
new make cask filling, mature spirit vatting and re-casking operations)
3: The activity number of that operation
So for example the 2015 5yo Cask #21/77-2 Whisky Shop Exclusive started
life in an ex-bourbon cask in 2015, then in 2021 as
the 2nd activity of the 77th operation in the
distillery it was re-casked into a Ruby Port cask.
Unfortunately the original bourbon cask number is lost in this process but
I'm sure it's recorded in some fancy spreadsheet in the distillery office!
More Geeky Stuff:
In a lot of these drams I've talked about toffee or caramel or butterscotch - aren't they the same thing?
Well actually no!
Caramel is made by mixing white granulated sugar together with heavy whipping cream, butter, and a small bit of vanilla. When it comes to butterscotch and toffee you’ve got a lot of the same ingredients but while caramel uses white sugar, both butterscotch and toffee use brown sugar.
Butterscotch is a hard candy - think Werther's Originals. Toffee is cooked for longer purposely overcooked until reaches the hard-cracked stage. At this stage there is almost no water left in the original syrup. Most hard-cracked candy is hard and brittle and has a sugar concentration of 99%.
So how do these all taste?
For me Caramel is the sauce you get on ice cream or puddings, Butterscotch is the smooth Werther's Originals type sweets, Toffee is the broken bits you get from Thornton's - the sweetness increases in each.
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