Sampling whisky in the comfort of your home is all fine and dandy, but nothing beats going to the source. For the next week or so, I will take a short break from reviews to share some highlights from a recent short visit to Campbeltown, or, as it is locally known, the Wee Toon. After the posts on the Watt Whisky, and Cadenhead’s Warehouse tastings, I conclude this short series of whisky travel posts with the Glen Scotia Master Distiller tour and Dunnage Warehouse tasting.
The Master Distiller tour combines a visit to the distillery with Glen Scotia’s Dunnage Warehouse tasting. It offers an in-depth whisky experience with Master Distiller Ian McAlister as the guide.
Before getting into the tour itself and the tasting, let me make a statement that some may find controversial. Whisky distillery visits can be really dull. That does change if you are a real geek who gets excited about the minutiae (and I am getting there). Yet, for the general public and whisky geeks alike, it is not the technical detail that makes a tour great. What makes or breaks a visit is the people involved. Having had a few distillery tours given by unengaged employees, to people who have made their way to visit you is a huge missed opportunity to create loyalty.
The depth of knowledge and expertise that you can expect from having the Master Distiller guide the tour is almost a given. Yer that would be little without charisma and communication skills. Ian McAlister excels in both and the passion for the work they do at Glen Scotia through the tour is absolutely contagious. That might account for some irrational buying decisions at the distillery shop afterwards which I will neither confirm nor deny.
The Distillery tour
The tour of the distillery covers all the steps of single malt whisky production, except for malting. Like many Scottish distilleries, Glen Scotia used to produce its malted barley in-house but now sources it. The distillery shop now occupies part of the building that used to host the malting floors.
If you have been on any distillery tour you wil be familiar with the mashing-fermentation-distillation-warehousing flow. So, rather than bore you with the description of the step by step process, I will just highlight a few interesting tidbits.
Fermentation times, and its effect on new make aromas, is a topic that I hear discussed more and more. Probably due to my lack of experience, I often considered those fermentation times monolithic. Ian McAlister explained that Glen Scotia employs short, medium and longer distillation times, to produce a variety of character in the distillate depending on the desired output.
The other topic that came up on the tour from a number of us in the audience was experimentation. Glen Scotia being part of the Loch Lomond group, a few of us wondered if the experimental approach seen at the sister distillery might be something we might also start seeing here. If anyone is hoping for some funky cask finish or yeat use at Glens Cota, don’t hold your breath. The philosophy here is more set on consistent quality and style. That is not to say that no experimentation takes place, but it clearly is not a driving principle here.
Ttyng the new make spirit made that concept evident. The very fruity, estery character of the spirit is a signature that was carried through to the casks in the tasting. Speaking of which…
The Glen Scotia Dunnage Warehouse tasting notes
Below are my impressions of the five whiskies offered in the warehouse tasting. Since I was driving immediately after the tour and tasting I had the opportunity to take these with me as driver drams. By the way, why don’t all distilleries offer these (talking to you Ardbeg)? This gave me the chance to sample them with some more time the same evening, dedicating more time to each. There is no formal review or vote, as in the two previous posts, but slightly more structured notes this time. I am listing these in order of very personal preference
1999 refill Sherry European oak
abv 53-54%
Incredibly complex nose. Starts with spirit drive aromas of baked and bruised apple, vanilla syrup poached pear. The spices cinnamon, cardamom, ginger powder and progressively more and more star anise. Then light elegant sherry notes. I get orange and tangerine peel, milk chocolate, rum soaked raisins, a hint of walnut, but more walnut cake or biscuit than the raw nut. After a while in the glass, there is mint, tobacco and marzipan.
The palate is very oily and rich. A lot of ripe and poached pear aromas to start. Then raisins, walnut cake, mint, sea salt, pipe tobacco and a little mocha.
The finish is very long, more impacted by the sherry than nose and palate. Milky coffee, hazelnuts and walnuts, candied orange peel and malted biscuits.
Without any doubt, one of the best drams I have had ever. If Glen Scotia ever bottles this, even though it would almost certainly be way past my budget, I might consider biting the bullet.
The cask used for this one (the red one in the picture above) is pretty unique by today’s standards. It is an old Sherry transportation cask from 1956, when Sherry could still be bottled outside of Spain,. The cask has likely been used multiple times. This type of cask was the traditional type of cask for ageing whisky until the 1980s. The stave thickness is noticeably larger than the ones in modern Sherry and Bourbon casks, which might explain how it still manages to provide a noticeable yet subtle Sherry character to the spirit.
2013 first fill bourbon cask 9
abv 55-56%
Having tried the new make spirit during the tour of th distillery, the distillate signature was immediately recognisable. Very fruity, with apple, pear and some of those rich ester notes, sea spray, a hint of lemon and Portuguese custard tart. Although those aromas continue to dominate the nose there are a lot of accompanying aromas in the background. Just a faint dunnage warehouse note, a little milk chocolate, a touch of spice, rose blossom and a little freshly cut grass.
Rich and oily on the palate, with very intense pear, tropical fruit, vanilla custard, sea salt and malt notes. The finish is very long, with clean pear, vanilla, lemon peel, custard and a touch of oak.
A very clean, intense and elegant marriage of Glen Scotia distillate and bourbon cask notes. The clear proof of the great quality this distillery can produce. Can we make this an annual Cask Strength release, please?
1991 first fill bourbon cask 532
Another very rich and complex nose on this one. Very clean and intense start on notes of baked apples and pears, pear schnapps, vanilla, sea spray, slightly fermented yellow fruit (pineapple and melon). That is followed by malted biscuits, menthol, buttery pastry crust a touch of ash, coriander seeds and beeswax-based furniture polish, the posh kind.
The palate is oily and rich but not as complex as the nose. The notes are also slightly muted. I get malted biscuits, poached pear, lemon drops lemon candied peel, a touch of ginger and cardamom spice. The finish is medium with the characteristic Glen Scotia fruity spirit imprint, vanilla, malt and noticeable oak tannin.
It might seem blasphemy to prefer a 10 YO to a 32 YO version of a similar whisky. It very much comes down to the vibrancy of flavours for me. While the 1991 cask has a complexity and richness on the nose close to the 1999 refill sherry, on the palate it is more muted and delicate. It is almost as if the whisky has reached its peak and is slowly becoming a little tired. Having close to no experience in older whiskies I might be completely wrong here, but it is about personal preference after all, isn’t it?
2016 ex PX refill cask 3393
abv 60%
The PX cask influence is anything but subtle. On the nose, oily walnuts, black coffee, treacle, spent matchstick and fruitcake come in hard. There are still some noticeable fruit esters from the spirit in the background. After some time in the glass, it gets slightly cheesy, oddly.
On the palate it is rich and full, with treacle, fruitcake and mocha and a definite sulfur note. Although just 7 years old there isn’t too much youthful character. The finish is very similar, fruitcake, mocha and treacle first leaving room for some ripe pear and a little vanilla.
Not a whisky for those who find Sherry sulphury. I usually do not detect sulphur in Sherry-aged whiskies. This is likely due to years working in a lab with sulphurous compounds, and yet this had a sulphur note even for me. Still, I do have a soft spot for Sherry bombs so I enjoyed this. The fact that the spirit character of Glen Scotia still managed to punch through the PX hit, speaks volumes to the quality of the distillate.
2016 heavily peated ex bourbon Cask 1631
abv 59%
Right off the bat, there is an intense smoky, sweet and slightly medicinal peat hit, vanilla, and lime peel. The fruity character of the Glen Scotia spirit (pear, pineapple) is there but subdued.
On the palate, there is some youthful spiciness, though not intrusive and quickly leaving way for intense medicinal peat, malted barley, caramel and a touch of smoked almonds. Nice oily mouthfeel.
The finish is quite peaty. It takes a while before other notes (vanilla, fruit) have a chance to make themselves noticed.
Not a bad whisky by any means, but I definitely prefer my Glen Scotia unpeated and when the spirit has a chance to shine. Maybe with further ageing the intense peatiness might be slightly subdued and show more as a complementary aroma to the estery spirit notes, rather than an overpowering one.
Worth the price?
At 100£ the Glen Scotia Master Distiller Tour and Dunnage Warehouse tasting might be something appealing more to the aficionados than the casual drinker. But if you are reading this, it is much likelier you fall in the first camp like me. You are getting a unique opportunity to get a firsthand account of the thinking that goes behind operating a distillery and the decisions that need to be made. Having this tour provided by Master Distiller Ian McAlister is something special, independently if Glen Scotia is one of your favourite distilleries or not..
What about the tasting? Sampling the output of all the toil and labour with some incredible cask sample bangers is not just a cherry on the cake, but a second cake in its own right. The opportunity of trying whiskies which would otherwise be inaccessible or way beyond my budget is one I would take any day.
While the Master Distiller tour is offered only on specific days (check Glenscotia’s webpage here) the Dunnage Warehouse tasting is available Monday-Friday. Either way, you will be in for a great experience.
Have you been on either the Glen Scotia Master Distiller tour or Warehouse tasting? I would love to hear your opinion in the comments!
Stay tuned as I go back to my reguar programming. Up next: entry level Peated Single Malt.
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