Glen Scotia – 9 Years Campbeltown Malts Festival 2024 Ltd. Ed. 70 cl. 56,2%
Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky
One of the most exciting bottlings of the year is Glen Scotia’s specially selected casks for the Campbeltown Festival, which takes place in May. This year, 2024, it is a 9-year-old, unpeated whiskey with an unusual finish: namely 6 months in fino casks! Fino sherry is a dry sherry type, crisp, fresh and salty, which must be said to harmonize extremely well with Glen Scotia, which with its own salty, maritime character is the quintessential Campbeltown whisky! Fino casks are quite rare compared to olorosophades, and you think that’s a real shame when you taste this one!
The first 8.5 years of aging takes place in first-fill bourbon casks, then a trip in sherry casks and then it is bottled at full cask strength (56.2%), natural color and without chill filtration.
As a bonus, you can scan the accompanying QR code and hear a unique soundtrack composed of sounds from the distillery. It’s like being there yourself! Almost…
Colour: Amber.
Smell: Absolutely Campbeltown smell of foam splash on craggy rocks, spicy notes of toasted oak, citrus and lemon curd.
Tasting notes: Rank, fresh and intense on the tongue, again with lots of citrus, sea salt. Medium long finish and an immediate urge for one more sip!
Serving suggestion: Should be enjoyed neat.
Glen Scotia is located in Campbeltown in southwest Scotland. The area was known in the old days as the whiskey capital of the world, because virtually the entire town was involved in the production or sale (and no doubt consumption) of whiskey. Today there are only 3 active distilleries: Springbank, Glengyle (Kilkerran) and Glen Scotia, but Campbeltown still has a reputation for being the whiskiest place in the world. Here, the small distillery, which is only slightly larger than Springbank, has been making whiskey since 1832, albeit with many interruptions along the way. Today it is owned by the Loch Lomond Group and the distillery has been producing continuously since 1999, but not at full capacity. As recently as 2011, when the whiskey boom was already well under way, Glen Scotia was making just 130,000 litres, although the capacity is around 800,000. I wonder if they have ramped up production a bit now? We hope so!
The style is medium-bodied and salty, sometimes visited by small, fleeting puffs of smoke. Glen Scotia makes both unsmoked and medium-smoked whisky, although with a deliberate focus on the former.
