G&M CC Glen Scotia 2000 KWM Cask

Tasting Notes

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: dirty, decadent, and tropical... it's got my attention; Milk Duds, Malted Milk, and Three Musketeers... quite a trio there; agave nectar, olive oil, and mochi; Five Alive fruit punch, honeydew melon, grilled pineapple, and slightly underripe banana. 

Palate: sweet, oily, and fruity, with just a hint of that dirty Campbeltown funk; more bright olive oil, agave nectar, and mochi ice cream notes; very fruity with fresh squeezed limes, lemon zest, honeydew melon, greengages, banana, and pineapple; there is a building spicy heat and a maritime flourish with sea salt and salted caramel icecream; coconut cream cupcakes and white chocolate Hershey's Kisses. 

Finish: warming, spicy, and coating, with fading decadence, fruits, and subtle maritime funk; a faint puff of clean smoke finally breaks through.

Comment: this is a lovely Glen Scotia, on the clean side of things, but with a touch of that dirty Campbeltown funk; it is complex, elegant, tropical, and oily with little to no heat; gorgeous, and dangerously drinkable! 

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Bright lemon zest combines with ripe green apple and tropical fruit. Light honey develops alongside subtle milk chocolate.

Taste: Sweet pine apple and mango flavours are balanced by cracked black pepper. Honeydew melon notes come to the fore alongside desiccated coconut and mature oak.

Finish: A full, sweet and creamy finish with fresh lime.

Distillery

Originally posted on our blog by Evan for KWM's 2019 and 2020 Whisky Calendars.

Glen Scotia is easily one of the top three operating distilleries in Campbeltown. When it comes to The Wee Toon, it is typically Springbank Distillery that gets all of the love from whisky aficionados. It is easy to see why – Springbank is a grungy Victorian throwback in look and feel. It is an anachronism – a distillery out of time and out of step with modern life – just as some say Campbeltown itself is. Springbank is rustic, dilapidated, inconsistent, and often impossible to find bottles from nowadays. And it is all the more loved because of that.

It should not be forgotten that Campbeltown is home to three distilleries: Springbank, Glengyle (bottled as Kilkerran), and Glen Scotia. Like it's Wee Toon’ cohort Springbank, the Glen Scotia Distillery itself is chock-full of grimy, victorian, and industrial character in all of the right ways. Also like both Springbank and Kilkerran, Glen Scotia Distillery lies within the town itself.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, back when Campbeltown was a more industry-driven place and with a more bustling fishing port, Glen Scotia had neighbouring distilleries on the other sides of the walls that encase its lot. At this time, the story goes, the town had more distilleries than churches which themselves numbered more than thirty. Boom times eventually went bust, and for quite a while only two distilleries remained in the town, though that could have been considered one and a half for how little Glen Scotia operated in the early 2000s.

Andrew tells stories of visiting the distillery more than a decade ago, when it was only sporadically in operation, and very uncared for. Much of the distillery equipment was falling apart. When Andrew and I visited in October of 2019, times had obviously changed. We had a great tour through Glen Scotia’s operations, led by Distillery Manager Iain McAlister and saw that everything was in operation, the stillhouse had thick coats of paint over nearly every surface possible, and the stills were polished and running.

Glen Scotia Distillery just so happens to be owned the Loch Lomond Group, which we have seen three times already in this year’s calendar with the Inchmurrin 18 Year, the Inchmoan 12 Year, and the Loch Lomond 18 Year. Glen Scotia itself has a fairly robust lineup of five core releases at the moment, including the Double Cask, Victoriana, 15-Year-Old, 18-Year-Old, and 25 Year Old. There has even been a release of a 45-Year-Old, though this is a lot more difficult and a lot more expensive to come by.

Independent Bottler

Adapted from an article written for Celtic Life Magazine by Andrew Ferguson:

In 1895 James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail opened a grocery business in the City of Elgin, the heart of Scotland’s Speyside whisky region. The business sold groceries, tea, coffee and wines from all over the world. 125 years later, Gordon & MacPhail still operates the grocery business in Elgin, but its real enterprise is as an Independent Bottler and Distiller of Scotch Whisky.

In the early years of the business Gordon and MacPhail brought in a young John Urquhart as apprentice. Urquhart had a knack for selecting and blending whiskies from local distilleries. He also began brokering casks and independently bottling single malt from famous distilleries like Glenlivet, Mortlach and Glen Grant. The practice of filling casks of new make whisky, rather than simply purchasing mature casks began at this time. This is something which sets Gordon MacPhail apart from almost all other independent bottlers to this day, and it gave them a leg up through leaner years. In 1915 John Urquhart was made senior partner, and though the firm would keep its name, from this point on it would remain privately owned by the Urquhart family.

In 1933 George Urquhart, aka “Mr. George”, joined his father in the business. He was heavily involved in the firm’s whisky business, travelling widely to showcase Gordon & MacPhail whiskies. G&M’s business thrived during and after World War II. Having had the foresight to lay down large numbers of casks in the 1930s and early 1940s, they were in a strong position to meet demand, especially in America. This was a difficult time for most of the industry with barley rationing dramatically reducing distilling.

In 1968, under George Urquhart’s leadership, Gordon & MacPhail launched the Connoisseurs Choice range. At a time when few distilleries were bottling their own whisky as single malt (rather producing it for use in Blended Scotch whiskies), Gordon & MacPhail began marketing single malts from distilleries across Scotland. The range is still being bottled today.

The third generation began entering the business with George’s son Ian Urquhart in 1967. He was joined by David Urquhart in 1972, as well as Michael Urquhart and Rosemary Rankin in 1981. The family firm continued to thrive even during the industry downturn of the 1980s and ear 90’s, emerging as the undisputed preeminent independent bottler of Scotch whisky. In the 2010s the torch was passed to the 4th generation, with at least five of John Urquhart’s descendants now involved in the business.

It had always been John Urquhart’s vision for the family to own a distillery of its own. The dream was finally realized in 1993 with the acquisition of the closed Benromach Distillery in the nearby town of Forres. The distillery was in rough shape, and it took nearly 5 years to get it up and running. HRH Prince Charles was on hand in 1998 for its official reopening. Never content to rest on their laurels, the firm announced plans in 2019 to open a brand-new distillery in the Cairngorms National Park. The Cairn Distillery is scheduled to open in 2022.

One of the most remarkable things about Gordon & MacPhail is the vision it had to mature whiskies to great ages. Few other whisky firms, whether distilleries or independent bottlers, have ever had the foresight to mature casks for more than 30 or 40 years. In 2010 G&M bottled the Generations Mortlach 70 Years Old, which was the oldest whisky ever bottled at the time. They followed up on that milestone by bottling 70-year-old Glenlivet in both 2011 and 2012. And then in 2015 they once again they raised the bar by bottling the Generations Mortlach 75 Year. Of the 10 oldest whiskies ever bottled, all but 2 have been bottled by G&M.

It is almost certain that Gordon MacPhail will one day bottle the first ever one-hundred-year-old whisky, but that may still be a couple of decades away. Their oldest maturing stocks are from the late 1930s and early 1940s. A number of these casks, 15 First Fill Sherry Butts to be precise, were filled for Gordon & MacPhail at the Glenlivet Distillery on February 3rd, 1940. Most of these casks have been bottled over the decades, but G&M dipped into another of these casks this year to bottle another whisky. The Generations Glenlivet 80 Year, once more the oldest bottle of Scotch Whisky ever bottled. It isn’t inexpensive, but I can vouch for it in one regard… it doesn’t disappoint!

Gordon & MacPhail whiskies can be found all over the world with whiskies ranging from under $100 to $100,000.00 or more. Their grocery shop in Elgin is the brand's spiritual home, with a section dedicated to Scotch Whisky that showcases more than 1000 bottles. Prior to Covid-19 the shop offered both tastings and in-store sampling. As does their nearby Benromach Distillery in Forres, one of the smallest and most traditional distilleries in the Speyside.