Glen Scotia Exclusive Cask 8 Years Old 2015

This official Glen Scotia, an 8 year old, from 2015, cask 23/390-4, at 57.5%, 232 bottles in all. Glen Scotia is a Campbeltown single malt made on Crosshill Loch water in the Wee Toon. It has been owned by the Loch Lomond Group since the 1990s, after many changes of hands.

It was drawn off the stills after a long ferment for a fruity, briny spirit, building the Campbeltown Glen Scotia style. It was matured in a Tawny Port 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. A gentle maturation suits the oily make, the sea salt and toffee growing with time. The Glen was added to the Scotia name around 1930, the distillery dating to 1832. Campbeltown, the Wee Toon, once held some thirty distilleries and was the whisky capital of the world. It runs a single pair of stills and shell and tube condensers for a slow, oily make.

At a hearty 57.5% it carries real weight. An oily, salted sweetness, with a nutty, raisined red fruit from the cask. A baked apple and a sea salt lift it. The finish runs long, oily and coastal. This is a Campbeltown single malt of real character.