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Glen Scotia Double Cask Single Malt
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
August 28, 2020 (edited January 17, 2022)
N: Exceptionally fragrant. Sweet with dark red fruit, milk chocolate, and salted caramel. There's definitely an ocean inspired funk to it, but I'm not sure how to describe it - kinda like sitting on a cold, windy, rocky coast, close to the sea spray, and eating a caramel Cadbury Creme Egg. Hard swirl produces some medicinal scents that offer some contrast. There's also some floral scents. Little bit of everything, plus some funk, and yet it all works and is delightful.
P: Sweet and salty at the tip of the tongue right away. It's sort of baked sweet bread and peanut shells. A bit boozy, which I find super interesting since I got none of that on the nose. That sea spray funk is there too, but more subdued. Vanilla, caramel, milk chocolate again. Not much on the way of fruit though. Finish arrives fashionably late but with a notable black pepper, cinnamon, and light anise spice that builds on the sides of the tongue and eventually provides a nice contrast to that sweet and salty that hits the tip on every sip.
This is one of the wildest whiskys I've ever tried. It's unusual, fun, and really tasty. I read a description/review that used "lobster pot" as a descriptor - that is a fair assessment, but is still short of the range of tastes this dram brings. It's like a lobster pot that uses caramel, chocolate and ocean water as the boiling base. That sounds potentially awful in reality, but Glen Scotia really makes it work in the whisky. It's adventurous and I love it.
Edit: Followed this with the last of a Springbank 12 for comparison sake and realized there's no smoke in the Glen Scotia. But I also I didn't miss it. Might've been a nice complication, as it is in the Springbank, but it's not terrible omission.
55.0
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+1 @CKarmios - Great detail! I'm shocked that something like "a lobster pot that uses caramel, chocolate and ocean water as the boiling base" could not be awful, but intrigued that this succeeds.
The anise seed/varnished wood note is fast becoming a Glen Scotia identifier for me. Loved the detail in the review