Glen Scotia
Campbeltown 1832
Travel retail you can buy off-airport
I got a couple of favorite distilleries, that I do not mention often.
Weird enough, I almost never write about them, review their whiskies or post something about them on my instagram. I think this is something sub-conscious. I truly enjoy those bottles and maybe I am keeping that for myself. So here they are: Bruichladdich, Ben Nevis and Glen Scotia. And todays review is a Glen Scotia.
When I encountered this travel retail "exclusive" on an airport duty free shelve last year (You can find it online, a bit more expensive, but not that exclusive.), I decided to bring it home with me. And like many bottles, it suffered from my whisky hoarding behaviour and almost disappeared in the back of my whisky storage. Until I acquired another bottle of Glen Scotia and placed it in the cabinet next to this bottle. Now it was on top of my mind again, and recently, during a summer storm, I was in need of a dram with a slightly coastal an peaty flavour profile. And I thought I could find exactly that in this whisky. So I opened it.
This NAS whisky, bottled at 46%, is non-chill filtered and has its natural color.
It is matured on American oak and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. No finish here, maturation. The distiller's note is " Rich and gently smoky"
The color is that of the sundried grass next to the road in high summer: Bright golden yellow.
On the nose: Campfire smoke, some oranges and malts. I even got some brown sugar being melted on a vanilla pudding. I also get some fruity hints of green apple, fresh pear mixed with some dried red fruits.
The taste: At first quite harsh. I got a lot of sharpness to deal with, followed by smoke and some saltiness. Not what I expected at first. but after leaving the dram for a short while and returning to it, the smoke gets softer, the sharpness evaporates and more of the fruit appears, mixed with a hint of warm honey. I got a mix of freeze dried strawberries and cherries ending in a funny tonic flavor.
The finish is medium long, edging towards short. But sweet notes linger on the tongue and smaller smoke hint lingers around that. Again some sharpness, but this time going towards pepper instead of spirit.
Overal e very nice whisky, but I'm not sure if I would buy it again. This might sound as a bad score, but in this case I compare it to other Glen Scotia's I've enjoyed, and not other brands. It did match the stormy weather outside though!
