Glen Scotia 21 Years Old 1992 93.57 Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of this! (58.3%, SMWS, Refill Sherry Butt, 407 Bottles, 2014)

• Campbeltown single malt scotch whisky
• 58.3% ABV,
• £84.90 for 70cl
• Score: 86/100

What they say:

The nose was both interesting and appealing appeal from sherry-soaked Christmas cake honeyed apricots balsamic-glazed pears spun sugar dark toffee and gorse flowers; and interesting thanks to benevolent smoke tobacco hessian old sailing ships and new cars. The palate got us quite animated cinnamon nutmeg and iced gingerbread molasses toffee apples honey-glazed ribs salty limes sweet sherry prawn tempura and biting a leather steering wheel?. The reduced nose Tim Burton gothic candy floss and Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest?. The palate now gave honey toffee and vanilla plus wood leather and ash ( recently used electric chair!?). From Scotland’s Glen?

Age: 21 Years

Distilled: 1992

Region: Campbeltown

Cask: Refill ex-sherry butt

What I say:

This Glen Scotia (SMWS distillery #93) was distilled on the 18th March 1992 and bottled as a 21 year old from a refill ex-sherry casks. One of 407 bottles released.

Colour:

Ruby amber gold

Nose:

Sherry, tannic, leather and cocoa, fruity Pez/chalky pastilles, dried fruits, cigar boxes and pipe tobacco, gentle peaty smoke

Taste:

Initially fruity with dried fruits, prunes, figs, raisins, cinnamon bubblegum develops to chilli heat, leather bound cigar boxes and tobacco leaf, a little rubber bicycle inner-tube creeps in at the end

Finish:

Long, coffee and dark chocolate mint (after dinner mints – the popular variety with an 8 in the name)

Overall:

A heavily sherried 21 year old Campbeltown malt. There is nothing in that statement that I don’t like. Similar to this whisky in fact, it isn’t perfect and its flaws are plain to see, but the rest is so delicious that you feel the flaws are just there to stop it being too perfect. Even with the rubbery/sulphury sherry cask influence and the chilli heat, this is a very very good dram. Another great example of single cask bottling from SMWS