Wednesday 18 January 2023

Side by side: A pair of Tawny Ports from Glen Scotia

I love Tawny Port matured whisky and I love @GlenScotiaMalts - I'm in heaven!


I'm comparing two bottlings here, both unpeated.
Very near the top of my favourite ever drams are two Tawny Port cask matured drams from Glen Scotia: the heavily peated 2005 14yo Single Cask #2017/413-6 with 18 months in Tawny Port and the medium peated 2006 14yo Campbeltown Malts Festival 2020 with 7 months in Tawny Port. There is a big difference between the two drams in terms of berry notes but not a lot in terms of peat smoke. These two drams are both much younger but fit somewhere in-between in terms of finishing time but of course they are both unpeated.

Let's see what they are like:



Dram2016 5yo
Single Cask
#21/756-1
2013 7yo
Single Cask
#20/304-9
Characteristics58.1% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour
12mth FF Tawny Port Hogshead
D: '16, B: '22
273 bottles
Distillery Shop Bottling
57.4% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour
12mth FF Tawny Port Hogshead
D: Jun '13, B: Apr '21
300 bottles
Bottled for M&P Cask Collection Club Poland
Distillery notesLayers of sweet blossom honey and ripe apricots intermingled with juicy blackcurrants and homemade strawberry jam. There is sweet clove and candied red apple before warming cinnamon and oak spice.Candied orange peel and sweet clove intermingle with juicy red berries and melted brown sugar. There are fresh strawberries and sweet ground almond before gentle oak spice to finish.
My thoughts: 
Appearance
Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and take an age to fall as thin oily legs.Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and take an age to fall as thin oily legs.
NoseMusty dunnage funk, salinity, berry and stoned fruit and a little hint of smoke. There's some foam bananas, marzipan and a hint of spice to come.Sweet orange notes, bubble gum, tropical fruit and a hint of salinity. More citrus, marzipan and spice.
PalateThick sweet oily arrival, immediately drying, lots of salinity and  tropical fruit: Campbeltown funk. Berry fruit: strawberries, redcurrants, raspberries and blackberries. There's brown sugar, a little nuttiness, a little citrus and a robust bite of cinnamon spice. There's some cherry notes and a little dark chocolate.Again thick, sweet and oily on the palate, the berries a little more pronounced. Then the salinity and dryness kick in, again with a little hint of smoke. The cherry and dark chocolate notes are here again. This one seems to have more of a spicy kick to it. The brown sugar, marzipan and tropical fruit of it's younger sibling is evident but the citrus is more evident.
FinishLingering spice, salinity and a little berry fruit.Lingering sweetness, berry fruit and a little salinity.
Overall5yo is nothing for a whisky, but Glen Scotia single casks seem to pull it off really well!
Four years in ex-bourbon and a final year in a first fill Tawny Port Hogshead have given the younger dram that in your face Campbeltown funk: salinity, tropical fruit and a little hint of smoke with a layer of berry fruit.
The older dram is nearly eight years old, again with the final year in a first fill Tawny Port Hogshead, this one is a little more balanced, berry fruit, tropical fruit and brown sugar giving a little more sweetness, the salinity and smoke are dialled down a little, the citrus and spice turned up a little.
These aren't peated drams but there does seem to be a little smoke note, very different from my favourite heavily peated Tawny Port bottling. Decisions... decisions... the younger dram scream Campbeltown at you, the older one just shouts it, both are lovely!

Huge thanks to @WhiskyWithMolly for the older Poland sample!

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