Official Bottlings | 46% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
The definition of a balanced whisky
Review 1/3 – Drummond
I’m starting to write this just after submitting my Hazelburn review, although you may remember it as the Ardbeg rant. Following the news of the 17yo coming back in a less than respectable presentation, I desperately needed some positive serendipity.
Glen Scotia 15 year old, Official releases, 2020 bottling vs 2023 bottling, 46% ABV
£65 paid
This is our first review of Glen Scotia 15 year old. I’m not sure why – we’ve reviewed lots of other Scotias over the last couple of years, and we generally quite like them. My only guess is that some of the higher ABV releases such as the popular Victoriana and the annual Festival releases might somewhat overshadow this 46% 15 year old, or that the more affordable Double Cask might be a bit more accessible.
Yet for me, while I love most if not all of the Glen Scotia’s I’ve tried and own (see the row of Scotia bottles here in the bunker at Fort Drummond), in my brain the 15 year old has always sat proudly at the centre of the range. A solid age statement that sits in that mid-teens sweet spot where so many malts tend to be at their peak between youthful vibrancy and aged complexity, an ABV that allows the natural oils and viscosities of the spirit to shine, and at a relatively affordable price – all of these have made Glen Scotia 15 one of the few consistent staples of my collection. I’ve had a few bottles of this over the last five years or so, and while the first one wasn’t quite there (batch variation is a natural thing, of course…but my inexperienced palate at that time was likely also the issue), the next bottle and the bottles today have been – well, you’ll see in a minute.
It turns out that I have two bottles here: an older label from 2020 (according to the tiny numerical stamp on the back of the bottle) and a newer label from 2023. So, I’ve placed them side-by-side and compared them; over the last several weeks I’ve been sipping these on different nights and writing tasting notes separately, and in the last week I’ve had a couple of drams of both together.
I hear you: “but Drummond, that means twice as much work to review a single expression!” It’s an extra burden, true, but (rolls up sleeves) such is my commitment to you…
Nose
2020 bottle: Lightly salty and lightly briny sea breeze. Oak bench, vanilla custard, stewed fruits, malty. Smells mellowed with age. Bourbon cask sweetness balanced by the savoury aspects of the spirit. Apple pie, hints of savoury herbs and spices, and pepper. Oak toffee. Ever so faint hint of light background peat.
2023 bottle: Orange peel, oak, and gentle salty sea breeze. Lemon oil and boiled soft fruits: peaches and melon. Somewhat lighter on the nose than the 2020 but the same character is here, even if a slight variation. Faint herbal quality, gentle maltiness, woody vanilla pod, hint of acetone and diluted diesel fuel.
Palate
2020 bottle: Maltier than on the nose, but much of the nose follows through on the palate: wooden bench, salty harbour breeze, vanilla pods, boiled peaches and apricots, orange peel in an oak barrel. Spices rather than herbs. “Campbeltown funk,” which today, to me, comes across as a savoury workshop quality, reminiscent of Benromach. Nice mouthfeel and texture: oily for 46%. Impressively balanced…nothing overpowers anything else.
2023 bottle: Pleasantly oily mouthfeel, engine oil on a wooden bench, salty sweet soft fruits (again boiled), wood spice, and salty sesame oil. Ambient workshop vibes. Creamy vanilla pods, malty, peppery oak, and a salty sea harbour quality. Hint of floral notes on the finish, alongside spices (nutmeg, allspice) and lightly buttered maltiness. Again, balance all around.
There’s more coastal salty breeze on the 2020 nose. More orange peel on the 2020 palate. More lemon oil and barley sugar on the 2023 palate. More workshop qualities on the 2023 palate. There’s also a slight difference in colour, with the 2023 bottle a shade lighter. Does this indicate a bit less artificial colouring? Given Glen Scotia’s recent moves with expressions such as the Double Cask Rum Finish stating quietly on the back label “natural colour,” and all of the Festival releases are natural colour, perhaps they are gradually easing off on the E150a in the core range. If so, this is certainly very welcome.
Both batches are highly characterful but in a subtle way: brooding, non-shouty, complex, layered. Sophisticated even. Both drams are also very inviting; not boisterously swinging the door open and giving you a bear hug, but rather calmly and cordially opening the door and welcoming you in, offering you a seat and the promise of a conversation that will be stimulating, interesting, and probably steering towards the more meaningful rather than superficial or banal.
The Dregs
This is simply excellent whisky. As I sit here throughout the evening with a single pour, I keep coming back to it as it shifts and transforms little by little with each passing hour to reveal new layers of interest, complexity, and flavourful permutations.
I’m just a punter and an amateur enthusiast, and Michael Henry has forgotten more about whisky than I’ll ever hope to know. But at the risk of sounding more knowledgeable than I am: I can only agree with Michael that the 15 year old is indeed the quintessential expression and experience of Glen Scotia. And, as the quintessential experience of Glen Scotia, it’s therefore a quintessential experience of Campbeltown single malt.
As an example of the unique experience of regionality of the Wee Toon, I put Glen Scotia 15 right alongside Springbank 10 and Kilkerran 12 as the exemplars of the Campbeltown style. Indeed, you would be missing out on something of C-town if you only stuck to Springbank.
There’s a reason our readers – you – have ranked Glen Scotia distillery so highly in the Dramface Top 40. There’s a reason why people around the world continue to discover the delights of this tiny and unique distillery that delivers bags of flavour and complexity. And there’s a reason why this humble but wonderful 15 year old should be a key stop on your exploration of Campbeltown. This towers above today’s ocean of over-priced, over-hyped plain vanilla whiskies – or often, just sheer mediocrity – that we see far too much of.
Maybe some of you have visited the town, and if you have you’ll know Kinloch Park; the open green area at the head of the Campbeltown Loch. It’s a great place to sit and get some fresh air after spending a day in the distilleries and enjoying all that they offer. When I was there back in May, I did just that, the sun shining.
It’s too romantic and too ridiculous, but this dram takes me there. Wherever you are, I hope you’ll join me and thank Glen Scotia and Loch Lomond Group for giving us this delicious, complex, evocative, characterful, and affordable whisky. Have a seat, pour a dram, have a little patience and spend some time with it, and let it take you to the harbour, sitting in the sunshine with the coastal breeze blowing on your face, looking out across Campbeltown Loch, and the shimmering sea beyond.
Review
Kilkerran Heavily Peated, Peat-in-Progress series, Batch 7, 2022 release, 90% ex-bourbon, 10% ex-sherry, 59.1% ABV
£50 now sold out
I wanted to open a J&A Mitchell to review while recounting this evening, and it turns out this is the only one I have that hasn’t already been reviewed on these pages. I opened this bottle during a similarly serendipitous, whisky-fueled night, one which I already told you about. I didn’t drink much of it during the summer months – though I could have, judging by the weather that we’ve had – and I’m starting to crave more bold and peaty spirits as winter hastily approaches. This should do nicely.
Nose
Peat! Rich, oily, earthy peat. Smouldering heather. Huge minerality: rock pools, summer rain on concrete, cliffs overlooking the sea (I know, talk about pretentious tasting notes). Charred lemon rinds. Somehow reminiscent of a great Pouilly-Fumé (Say Amphore by Marius Tabordet), or a great petrol-filled Riesling.
With water: More citrus, lemon skins, fresh this time. Smoke ramps up, ashes, dying fire. Tart mirabelle juice. Funky, like melting plastic.
Palate
Brilliantly rich, earthy, ashen, with a hint of malty sweetness. Smoky on the finish, like a thick, black, sticking to your wet sweater smoke. The peat becomes creamy. Light acacia honey. Massive length, and extremely well integrated ABV. Sudden sweet red apples, candy apple even.
Water: A bit more coastal, fresher fruits. Easier, but a bit earthier as well.
The Dregs
No two ways about it, if big high ABV peat monsters are your thing, the entire “Peat in Progress” range from the folks at Glengyle is worth your time. Now on Batch 10, it offers fantastic value, with a RRP of around £50 in the UK. It’s bold, unapologetic, and pure. If they invented a peat flavoured spread and you put as much of it on a wholemeal bread slice as you do with Nutella, it would probably still taste less peaty than this.
As days shorten and we enter the dark months, I’ll probably go back, as many of you do, to heavier, maybe sherried whiskies, and also big peat slappers like this one. Keep’em coming, Campbeltown!
Now, what to listen to with this big bruiser of a dram ? Let me suggest a big bruiser of a song, Let her die, by Swedish band Bombus, from their 2013 album The Poet And The Parrot. Nothing like putting this on full blast at 9am.
Score: 7/10
