1992 Gordon & Macphail The Macphails Collection Glen Scotia 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

Campbeltown is too easily overlooked as a malt region. It still produces extraordinarily distinctive singles, even if there are only three, from a mere two distilleries. The sea-mist character of the region can be at its freshest and most startling in Glen Scotia, and when pronounced, it ranks as one of our favourite drams.

The Glen Scotia distillery, founded around 1832 is in a cottage-like building in a quiet street. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a former proprietor who drowned himself in Campbeltown Loch after being tricked out of a large sum of money. After a period of closure in the mid 1980s the distillery reopened toward the end of that decade. With the lowland distillery Littlemill it was in the late 1980s backed by the Canadian whisky company Gibson. It's presently owned by the Loch Lomond Distilling Co. and since 1999 was in operation for only a few weeks of the year, thanks to the team at Springbank. Activity has been stepped up since 2007 to part time operation.

Production at Glen Scotia employs both unpeated and peated barley with most maturation taking place in Bourbon barrels. The Glen Scotia style is typically fresh and salty (maritime) making an ideal aperitif.

This unusually aged expression at 15 years was bottled by Gordon & Macphail, distilled in 1992 and bottled in 2007.

Other reviews... The nose is quite light and fresh. There are notes of leafy greenness and cut hay. Hints of flour and malty barley sugars with a touch of gentle smoke and peat. Notes of pine oils and boiled sweet, hits of nectarine and vanilla cream. The palate is of good body with a freshness. Notes of dried herbs and an ozone note, hints tannic oak and cereal sweetness. The finish is quite short with a good barley sweetness and a coastal character. - Master of Maltsize>

n18 t20 f18.5 b18.5. Around this period Scotia were at times having all kinds of problems with their distillation and to boot, were filling into poor casks. Here’s proof 43% Gordon & MacPhail. 43% Alc./Vol. 75 points - Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2011size>