Campbeltown Malts Festival 2019 has started yesterday (or at least the warm up did) and the tradition dictates Campbeltown whisky reviews during the festival, right?
So today we’ll have a 18 Year Old Glen Scotia distilled back in 1992, matured in Sherry hogshead cask #141 and was bottled in November 2010. Yeah, more than 8 years has passed since then but I got to taste this not long ago and let me tell you – it’s a good one!
Glen Scotia 1992 18 Year Old (Kintra Whisky) (52.6%)
Photo credit: whiskybase.com
Nose: Tobacco, sweet dried fruits, earthy greenery and even somewhat damp and rotting, cigar smoke, dry cold smoking peat smoke and after a few minutes bitter dark rich chocolate. Continue reading
Nose: Peated with sweet smoke, lemon, gentle tropical fruits, BBQ meat, vanilla, soft. After a few minutes there’s mint, floral perfume, more smoked meat and honey. Very much matured Caol Ila. 
Nose: Very oily and peated, cured meat, BBQ party, slightly greenery, barley sugar, chimney smoke, vanilla and pears pudding and eventually there’s coal smoke and more greenery. Very rich and not too punchy despite the ABV and young age. 
Nose: Soft and balanced, baked pears, fruity and chocolaty. Then medium aged soft leather and then lots of toffee! And then cinnamon and nutmeg. Complex and nice, just maybe a bit too relaxed and laid back? 
Nose: Not as enticing as the 15 Year Old, at least not at first where there was less sherry finish impact. Sour fruitiness, polished wood, again some soursweet stone fruit and eventually red berries. 
Nose: Not as creamy as the 12 Year Old as the sherry finish must have mitigate some of it, but it’s still soft with sweet fruit marmalade, dried papaya, sweet sour fruitiness and milk chocolate. Gets better and fruitier with time – very enticing. 
Nose: Soft, sweet, malty with brioche and buttery croissant, vanilla, pears, apples. Very creamy!, Then a bit of lemon peels marmalade. After a few minutes it’s becoming less creamy and rounded and gains some sharpness and spiciness with gentle white pepper. 
Nose: Sharp at first. honey and meadow bordering rocky slops, croissant. After a few minutes it’s floral with spring breeze, almonds, soursweet honeyed pears, stone and citrus fruits. 
Nose: Thick sherry influence with dark sweet chocolate, roasted coffee beans and cinnamon. Then the earthy peat shows up followed by subtle dried fruit: plums, dates and some dark red berries. Very heavy nose. With a few (and then a few more) drops of water – still pretty much chocolaty, but it’s not so thick and clogging, fruitier and with subtle peat smoke. 
Whisky Gospel 