Glen Scotia 22yo 1991/2013 Hunter Laing OMC 15th Aniv. 57.4%
Glen Scotia in Campbeltown occupies a somewhat uncomfortable spot next to illustrious Springbank, and it doesn’t help that its owners, Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse, haven’t seen fit to push their distilleries as Single Malts. On top of that, it’s ever only been at a fraction of its production since being bought over, is the mind willing but the body weak? It is not surprising that this whisky boom seems to have left Glen Scotia in a gloomy place, perhaps something depressing was left over from when former owner Duncan MacCallum drowned himself out of despair in Campbeltown Loch in 1930.
(liquorstore.ch)
Fat stills with flatly horizontal lyne arms suggests a tendency towards a heavier spirit, but we know Glen Scotia’s Cambeltown housetyle is not quite that heavy, I wonder what their distillation regime is like.
Nose: Rather closed at a powerful 57.4% after 22 years. Potent but not very giving: Rock salt, wispy smoke, some thick cream, sweet woodiness, syrup, potpourri. With much needed water: Still rather on the lean side, with dried grass, leaf sap, thinner, salt rubbed gravel, but also some soft dried florals. Chrysanthemum? Chamomile? The creamy wood does its part here.
Palate: Spicy white heat, vanishing malt, stacks of acrid burnt grass, bittergourd juice. Soothed by the merest hint of dried flowers. Touches of bourbon wood trying its darnest. Varnishy. So they say a difficult whisky has its own rewards.
Finish: Acrid gingery and bitter.
This is the period before hte heavily peated later 90s. Not sure what to make of this, difficult to approach. Some coastalness, but hints of something softer but that acrid burnt grass detracts from everything. Educational for sure.
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