Glen Scotia - Double Cask Rum Cask Finish

@GlenScotiaMalts' Double Cask was launched in 2015 a 5 year old ish FF bourbon barrel whisky finished for 12 months in PX sherry casks.

This month they've launched a Rum finished version - let's see what this one is like...

A new addition to the core range, an ongoing expression alongside the original Double Cask, the Rum finished bottling is the same base liquid: 95% unpeated and 5% medium peated spirits matured for 4½ years in first fill bourbon. The casks are then vatted together and filled into first fill Demerara Rum Barrels, from Guyana. Matured for a further 8 months then finally vatted together and married for 1 month before bottling.

                

Distillery notes:

A different take on our ever-popular Glen Scotia Double Cask, our rum finish has been inspired by Campbeltown’s Victorian past as one of the most internationally connected ports, with trade routes that spanned the globe. 

Double Cask is perhaps the perfect embodiment of the Campbeltown spirit, where very different personalities and styles come together in a perfect unity to create something exceptional. In the case of Double Cask Rum Cask Finish, records as far back as 1815, before Glen Scotia’s founding, show casks of rum present and for sale in the town. 

This whisky not only a homage to this history, but further takes its inspiration from one of our most distinctive and celebrated Limited Edition Malt Festival Bottlings.

The alternative finish in Guyanese demerara rum barrels gives an exotic and tropical mouthfeel. Matured in the finest American oak barrels, this rich and exotic whisky is filled with notes of cooked sugar, molasses and tropical fruits. 

Nose: Cooked sugar, maritime sea spray and tropical fruits.

Taste: Rich and exotic. Sweet notes of cooked sugar and molasses are balanced by tropical fruit notes of coconut, banana and sweet peach 

Finish:  Warming spice and maritime notes linger.

Let's see what it's like....

Info: NAS, 46% ABV, Natural colour, NCF.

Appearance: Pale gold in the glass - nice to see natural colour on a core range bottling, swirls cling as a thin line of beads which take an age to fall as slow thin oily legs.

Nose: Fresh and inviting - tropical fruit to start: pineapple, mango, kiwi, banana; there's a little coconut, some salted caramel and brown sugar. A little time and air offers more tropical fruit complexity, a little citrus, salinity and some distant smoke.

Palate: Thick oily arrival, sweet tropical fruit, a bite of ginger spice and a lingering salinity from the first sip. This seems a little stronger than 46%, it's got a bit of a kick, ginger spice and citrus zest leaving a fizz on the lips. A few more sips and the Glen Scotia DNA mouth coating oiliness,  tropical fruit, sea breeze salinity and a distant smoke note. The complex tropical fruit medly from the nose is here on the palate, each sip revealing something new: pineapple, mango, kiwi, banana. As the liquid disappears an icing sugar dryness coats the tongue, a little citrus fizz and another bite of ginger spice.

Finish: Long lingering tropical fruit, ginger spice and dry salinity.

Overall: I wasn't a fan of the 2019 Festival Rum Edition from which this was inspired - it was far too sweet - sickly even, this one is sweet but overly so. The DNA you'd expect from Glen Scotia is here - tropical fruit, citrus, salinity and a distant smoke smoke, the 8 month Rum Barrel finish really just adds to these - a little more complexity to the tropical fruit and a little more sweetness in the form of brown sugar and toffee. Nice!