Scapa 14 Years Old

A distillery bottling of Scapa matured to 14 year old and bottled at 40%. Scapa was first built in 1885 overlooking Scapa Flow near Kirkwall, and it is the gentle, unpeated face of Orkney whisky. Water comes from the Lingro Burn, piped to keep the spirit free of peat.

Distilled through a rare Lomond wash still and an onion spirit still, with heavy copper contact, giving the oily, fruit driven spirit at its heart. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, the wood adding a creamy honeyed sweetness. By this age the creamy spirit rounds into heather honey and ripe orchard fruit. Years in oak round the spirit, the honey and tropical fruit deepening with age. Mothballed in 1994, Scapa was restored and revived by Pernod Ricard in 2005. The malt long fed the Ballantine's and Teacher's blends before its own fame grew. It is one of the few distilleries still worked largely by hand. Founded in 1885, it is the second oldest distillery on Orkney after Highland Park.

Reduced to 40%, it is mellow. The refill oak lending honey and vanilla, with heather honey and orchard fruit. The mouthfeel is oily, the honey carried on a creamy body. A long, creamy finish carries a maritime lift. This is a creamy island malt of real depth.