Glen Scotia 21 Years Old 1991 Cask #710394 (Duncan Taylor)

A Glen Scotia of a 21 year old chosen by the bottler Duncan Taylor, distilled in 1991, from cask 710394, bottled at 52.8%, one of 66 bottles. Glen Scotia, founded in 1832, is one of the three surviving Campbeltown distilleries. Its water is drawn from Crosshill Loch above the town.

The spirit was run through the stills and shell and tube condensers on Crosshill Loch water, for an oily spirit with a coastal, salted edge. A bourbon barrel held it, the wood adding a light vanilla over the brine. At oxidative maturity vanillin and lactones are fully expressed, the salty, oily malt deepening. The cool, salt laden Campbeltown air gives a slow, coastal maturation in the warehouses. A former owner, Duncan MacCallum, drowned in the loch that fed the distillery, and is said to haunt it. The oily, coastal spirit shows the cask clearly, vanilla and brine to the fore. Campbeltown, the Wee Toon, once held some thirty distilleries and was the whisky capital of the world.

At a natural 52.8% it is full and oily. An oily, salted sweetness, with a soft vanilla from the oak. A dried fruit and a soft oak give it depth. It finishes long, briny and oily. This is Glen Scotia's coastal, briny Campbeltown style.