Glen Scotia Single Cask #21/769-8 5 Years Old 2016 (Oloroso)

Glen Scotia from the distillery, a 5 year old, from 2016, cask 21/769-8, at 56.7%, 247 bottles in all. Glen Scotia is a Campbeltown single malt, one of only three distilleries left in the old whisky capital. The Glen was added to the Scotia name around 1930, the distillery dating to 1832.

The spirit was distilled slowly in a single pair of stills for an oily, coastal make, for a briny, oily make of salt, citrus and a salted toffee. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working into the oily malt. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut over a briny, oily spirit. The slow distillation and shell and tube condensers give the oily Glen Scotia body. The cool, salt laden Campbeltown air gives a slow, coastal maturation in the warehouses. Its long ferment, averaging well over a hundred hours, builds a fruity, coastal character.

At a natural 56.7% it is full and oily. Sea salt, citrus and a salted toffee, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Beneath it run citrus, salt and a soft oil. A long, oily finish carries a sea salt and a citrus. This is one of the last three Campbeltown malts.