Glen Scotia 1999 KWM Cask No. 359

Tasting Notes

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: cola cubes and old-fashioned root beer; delicate smoke, a touch of wasabi-ginger and salted caramel; a touch of the classic Glen Scotia dirty engine oil, honeydew melon, mango and brown sugar round out the nose.

Palate: big, rich, herbaceous and oily, very oily; this is classic Glen Scotia with a fine balance between the dirty engine oil-soaked rags, subtle maritime smoke and delicate fruits; more salted caramel, root beer cola cubes and chinotto; melons, mango and Granny Smith apples make way for wasabi, sliced ginger, clove and nutmeg.

Finish: long, coating and oily; like the palate, it moves in layers, with traces of fruit, spice and dirty engine oil; creamy and fruity for the finale.

Comment: This is a cracking Glen Scotia; it was made at a time when the distillery was severely neglected, almost decrepit; I have long marvelled at how this distillery produced such beautiful whiskies, especially the older ones, almost despite itself; this whisky is not for everyone, but if you like the classic Campbeltown style, there is much to love here! 

Producer's Tasting Note

"Sweetness up front then spices start to build, cloves, allspice and ginger. There is fruitcake, raisins, sultanas and figs ending with a little oak tannin edge."

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.