robertmaxrees
Glen Scotia 15 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
December 8, 2020 (edited February 15, 2021)
Note - I'm doing the Really Good Whisky Company Advent Calendar. I've also decided to pour these whiskeys "blind" (or at least as blind as I can), then providing nose, palate, and finish notes. I'll then look at the label, proof, cask type, etc. before writing my other notes. I'll be providing some guesses around things like proof and cask type and then seeing how much I missed the mark. Slàinte Mhath!
Nose: Highland? Honeyed toasted grains and vanilla. Tart green apple. Subtle baking spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, alongside black pepper, which makes me want to guess re-charred or new charred cask in play. Pine and lemon. Herbaceous, grassy, and some minerality. Some brown sugar and a tinge of maple. Ripe red fruits. Guessing proof is going to be around 48%.
Palate: Green apples, bananas and toasted grain with a little vanilla and honey. Am I getting mild new-make funk? Or is this just rocking some solid age and a ton of oak? I can feel it now - I'm going to look at the label when this is done and facepalm my hand clean through my head. Drying, with barrel char and bite. Black pepper, flowers, herbs. Sour cream. Tart cherries. This feels like single malt, I think. Minerality and under-ripe citrus. This hits the palate light on the front, and builds as it goes back. Lots of low-mids then some almost harsh brightness on top. Light mouthfeel.
Finish: Flash of banana and vanilla. Some brown sugar, too. Grains come in. All sitting on this plank of charred oak. Floral perfume. Milk chocolate shows up, and then eventually everything falls away and we fade out on vanilla sweetness. Medium length, with some reasonable oil content.
Other notes: Was close on proof - off by 2% but I'll take it. Wrong on cask type (ex-bourbon). Wrong on region (Campbeltown). Right about single malt. And the age... This whole calendar has been a huge lesson on the impact of oak and how that changes and morphs over time. The distillates getting swapped actually helps, since it means I can better hone in on what isn't changing between, say, more highly oaked expressions. I couldn't place if this had a bit of new-make funk. From what I can tell, I was tripped up by a combination of a touch of brine and that heavy oak character. 15 years is a long time, so this had plenty of time to interact with the wood and extract some of those deeper, more intense oak characteristics.
I'm also seeing that this has a small bit of peat - 15 ppm keeps getting tossed out, though the Glen Scotia website says they do peated and unpeated whiskeys, without saying if the 15 is one or the other. I might believe that number, but I can't find confirmation.
I actually like this. Well integrated and cohesive, everything here comes together nicely. I'd potentially buy a bottle of this if I came across it, but I don't feel compelled to seek it out. Still, very enjoyable. Until next time, cheers!
Create Account
or
Sign in
to comment on this review
I'd be fairly onboard with that set of regions @cascode :)
@cascode Legit laughed at that last bit! And I totally see your point - this whole experience has shown me that whole Scotland's regions, while still represented in some expressions, can be much more nuanced and fluid than I was expecting. Really fun to explore :)
@ContemplativeFox Interesting you should mention that. In his book “Malt Whisky : the complete guide” Charlie Maclean defines 9 regions: Islay, Campbeltown, Lowlands, Islands, North Highlands, Central Highlands, East Highlands, West Highlands and Speyside. Makes sense to me.
@robertmaxrees There are geo-historical factors that gave certain areas (like Islay) a distinct tradition but nowdays that is breaking down. Modern transportation, maturation largely done off-site, process automation, movement of staff between distilleries, adoption of common manufacturing practices, centralization of malting and so on have all led to regionality being a less reliable way to classify scotch whisky. Personally I tend to think of scotch as existing within just 3 regions anyway: Islay, Springbank and everybody else. Nah, just kidding 😀
@CKarmios Thank you! I've had a few malt/grain blends (especially Irish) that have blown my mind with just how good they are. Grain whisky isn't a bad thing - just another paint to accent the canvas. Cheers!
@cascode @ContemplativeFox I'm glad my blind impressions weren't completely off the mark. Campbeltown's story of trying to preserve their status (including said status almost getting revoked and the subsequent opening of a third distillery saving that designation) might hold some keys to what's going on. But also, their historical signifigance of once being home to, what, 27 distilleries? iirc they were once considered a great "whisky capital", so I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some cross-pollination (or just straight-up influence) happening. The Talisker and Oban mention feels like an interesting angle to explore - gives me inspirationm for future blind flights. One big lesson I've learned from my experience so far has only reinforced not only the variation between regions, but also the variations within regions. The oak character actually reminded me of the Loch Lomond I recently tasted. But I'm also painfully aware of my own preferences and experiences with bourbons and how those have shaped my palate - I'm so far out of my comfort zone with these that any time I get those classic strong oak notes I want to jump on the "NEW CHARRED OAK" or "SMALL CASKS" descriptors. Thanks for the feedback - it actually helps quite a bit :)
Great notes and thinking behind the source of flavours. It’s not easy to tell apart a single malt and a good blend. The 15 YO is a fine whisky.
Ah, it's all about regions of the highland today @cascode! I have to agree that I wouldn't be able to place Glen Scotia as a Campbell town blind and would definitely have called it west highland. Spring bank seems like an exception, but so does Clynelish in the north highlands, so I'd be prepared to accept Campbell town as part of the highlands and consider Spring bank kind of exceptional. Maybe we just need to break up the highlands into separate regions.
Great review. Interesting that you took this for a highlander, and I can totally get it. I have long had the opinion that the whole Campbeltown-as-a-region thing is just marketing and fluff, and that both Glen Scotia and Springbank are more accurately west-highland whiskies, regardless of there they may be on the map. I get a sort of "extended-family" resemblance between them both and Oban, Ben Nevis and Talisker and even Loch Lomond sometimes.