Glen Scotia 20 Years Old 1992 The Soul of Scotland (Anam na h-Alba)

The bottler Anam na h-Alba bottled this Glen Scotia, a 20 year old, distilled in 1992, bottled at 59.2%, one of 96 bottles. Glen Scotia is a coastal, briny Campbeltown malt, founded in 1832 on the Kintyre peninsula. A former owner, Duncan MacCallum, drowned in the loch that fed the distillery, and is said to haunt it.

It was worked through the stills for an oily, coastal make, for an oily spirit with a coastal, salted edge. Maturation came in an Oloroso cask, layered over the briny Glen Scotia make. At oxidative maturity vanillin and lactones are fully expressed, the salty, oily malt deepening. The Campbeltown style is oily and salted, the cask deepening it over the years. Maturation in the Campbeltown warehouses, by the sea, lends a coastal edge. The slow distillation and shell and tube condensers give the oily Glen Scotia body. Crosshill Loch water and a long ferment give the oily, coastal Glen Scotia make.

At 59.2%, undiluted, it is deep and briny. A coastal, oily sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a sea salt lift it. The finish is long, oily and salted. This is a salty, oily Campbeltown single malt.