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 →

Last month Glen Scotia distillery, one of three Campbeltown distilleries, relaunched their Glen Scotia 18 Year Old expression. It’s replacing the old 18 Year old expression that exists since 2013 which may be familiar to you because of the blue colors theme of the bottle and label (see image on the right).

So only 4 years later, the expression is coming back in a new and more mainstream-y (or perhaps should we see less avant-garde?) packaging and coloring. But the big news are that it also boasts a new liquid recipe. the old version was matured exclusively in ex-bourbon casks and this time the spirit was matured for 17 years in ex-bourbon casks, before married together and finished in Oloroso sherry casks for 12 months.

I guess the older version wasn’t doing so well so they tried something else and see if they can come with a better whisky. Did it work for them?

Glen Scotia 18 Year Old 2017 (46%, £85.95/€67,90)

Nose: Bright and fruity with sooty smoke, very punchy at first even at 46%. Dusty, salt and minerals, pears, toffee and honey. After a while some sherry notes shows up: dried red fruit interwoven with the bright and fresh honey, cinnamon and nutmeg spices. nose is going back and forth between the delicate sherry notes the bourbon impact notes. Continue reading →

Today the Campbeltown festival starts and with it a hectic and busy two weeks full of distilleries activities highlighted by Feis Ile 2016 on Islay. It all starts with Glen Scotia open day in Campbeltown and I have a Glen Scotia review for the occasion.

Glen Scotia 15 Year Old is a recent release that was released in 2015 as part of the brand re-launch, matured in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 46%.

Glen Scotia 15 Year Old (46%, £55.45/€57.50)

Nose:  Concentrated sweet fruit, very jammy. Red apples, oranges, vanilla, nuts, ginger spice and cinnamon, After a while in the glass there are canned apricots, salty water along with some background dryness but not everything is rosy here – it feels thin and lacking substance. Continue reading →