🥃 Whisky Auctioneer

A 15 year old Glen Scotia with rum barrel finish? Sounds very promising and you won't be disappointed if you give him some time in the glass and add a little water. Some nuances are reminiscent of a spring bench 15.

22 23 21 22 Very delicate and delicious! Excellent rum barrels work wonders!

Rum Cask Finish succeeded, you do not notice. ;-) Seriously: that's a really great bottling with a lot of Springbank and Campbeltown feeling. Not the first time that Glen Scotia has been surprised lately with a very successful bottling.

Another example of why I like Glen Scotia so much. Raw, unpolished, but pretty complex and versatile. Some nice mix of some smoke and salty, oily notes with fruity and sweet flavours. Packed in a good Abv, making it strong but not too overpowered. Great dram for sure.

rum driven, peat, earth, sweet vanilla, industrial with peppers, citrus fruit, with a rough smoke... I must say I like it!

Not too peaty with a touch of rum, but a fair drink.

https://whiskylovingpianist.wordpress.com/2021/01/04/letting-go-17-phase-2/ N: After the rather raw/honest Blair Athol and Kilchoman, here we have rather a polished accomplished malt. Yet this is Glen Scotia, which means there’s almost certainly the potential for a desirable [even fishy?] grimy dirtiness lurking close by. For sure there’s rum cask influence which provides a vanilla-rum-sweetness to proceedings, yet besides everything else, there’s also a slick oily weightiness that reminds me just how far Glen Scotia have come in the last 4-5, 6 years? And of the peatiness – mid-summer-dried cowpats coupled with rich vegetal [cod liver] oil – heaven! Then there’s the ‘NOS’ [new-old-stock] rubbery-waxiness. T: Again, sweet peppery-rubbery-waxy cowpats before the green-oily > almost confectionary vanilla ice-cream notes stream in. That said, it’s not exactly sweet, at least at first. At the heart, there’s a complex sweet-peppery-earthy- vegetal almost rubbery [cod liver] oiliness to enjoy, as well as more typical chocolate caramel stages that work there way to,… F: ,… a caramel-sweet > peated finish. Yet by this stage, the peat has enveloped into the palate as an almost subliminal base note. After some impeccably-controlled gradual yet persistent astringency, what remains is a fabulous mouthful. C: An excellent malt whisky that may well cellar-improve further [could be an absolute stunner in 20/30 years time]. And what are the rum casks Glen Scotia used? They work so well, we should expect, and hope, to see their likes again.

Myrrh I guess every whisky region by now has its own festival right? So, hence also does Campbeltown. This year will be very different, but last year Glen Scotia released this 15 years old malt – at cask strength – finished on rum casks for 8 months. Impressive nose with the typical dirty edges of Glen Scotia on the one hand, but on the other lovely, quasi tropical fruit. Somewhat waxy and a lovely, modest smokiness. Hint of pineapple, kiwi and mandarin, but mostly bright lime. Chalk and pebbles. Reminds me a bit of old Springbank, to be honest. And it’s very good! Bull’s eye on the palate! Very mineral on pebbles, hessian sack, light sour peat, but beautifully balanced by lots of citrus and some pineapple, followed by a splash of brackish water and some bitter grape piths. The smoke becomes more intense and quite pleasant. Myrrh! I think it’s the very first time I get this in a whisky. Brilliant. Now I am reminded more of Kilkerran, in fact. Well, it’s also Campbeltown (note to self: stop your nonsense). Truly lovely balance. The finish is intense and long, salty versus sweet. Smoky till the end. Wow, this is truly an impressive Glen Scotia. Recommended.

Rum cask finishes are best when they're unobtrusive. This one is, and it's a success (like many recent Scotia bottlings). Lovely ripe fruitiness and salty structure, with plenty of sweetness and only the softest of smoke ("heavily peated" in this context has to rank among the overstatements of this young century). This is better than last year's festival bottling, which was hitting the vanilla / first-fill-Bourbon notes a bit too heavily for my taste. This one is buttery and sweet, but also well-rounded and balanced, and perfectly drinkable at cask strength. Really the opposite of what you expect when you read "rum cask" and "heavily peated", but you won't hear me complaining.

Aroma More balanced than the 2018, surprisingly little smoke. citrus. Slight sweetness, vanilla and nice wood spice. taste Fruit punch, really fat smoke. Very sweet, wood spice, citrus. finish Medium length, smoky, sweetish, great finish Upgraded 5/21/21 from 87 to 88

This is a great dram. Intense, with fine smoke and dense aromas.

peat, woody strong, a little sweet, spicy maritime freshness, a little caramelized.

COLOR: light gold / honey - a very complex malt - surprisingly easy to drink neat despite the high Percentages, - with about 70 € very good price for the quality

a wonderfully balanced malt - bourbon aromas - nice smoke development - tropical fruits - complex; it was available in DEU for € 68.00 in 2019 = great! [Color] = honey;

N22 P22 F21 B22

Sorry to be such a divider, but I can't join the general praise; yes, it's nice and sweet and smooth, a party drink with a heavy rum influence, rum raisins and lots of honey sweetness, but somehow there's nothing left of Glen Scotia. Overall rather one-dimensional. Peated? You hardly notice anything about it.

My 10cl sample really impressed me. Caribbean notes, smoke, Campbeltown funk. Unfortunately you can no longer get a whole bottle at an acceptable price.

The bottling for the Campbeltown Malts Festival is always a special bottling from Glen Scotia, the wonderful distillery, which has gained massively in profile in recent years, but fortunately is not yet as overhyped as Springbank. Hopefully this stays that way. In 2019 it was not a wine cask in which the peated whisky was finished. This matured in the rum cask and has at least the good age of 15 years. The color is bright gold. www.glen-efze.de

The whisky has improved significantly in the half-full bottle. A few months after the first tasting, it seems much more harmonious, complex and overall more balanced.

S 9 Complex and crowded yet harmonic. Basically everything in one place. Lovely as usual. Adding O2 will trigger the fruit & smoke bomb on the palate. [86-89] YES!!! One to be tasted and remembered for years. I'll buy a bottle whenever possible. N 27 Coastal salty peat smoke. Sweet fruits (Juicy dark plums, snow pears, roasted pineapples), slowly transform into fresh fruits with creamy vanilla over time. Demarara sugar. Lemony at its base. A whiff of coastline soil and spicy oak. P 27 Again, oily coastal peat. Lemon peels. Well-integrated, lightly-burnt molasses sweetness. Toasted oak. Peppery but sweet spices. Creamy vanilla slowly builds up the pace. A touch of ginger extract and charcoal. F 25 Mid, sweet peated finish. Coastal breeze. A mild touch of beeswax. Drying oak and baking spices lingering.

eye Radiant golden. Nose / palate Aromatic already in the nose wonderfully ingratiating and altogether very successful. I already found the wild 2018 port. But the rum is at least as good. Quite different, much more pleasing and balanced than the brother from the port wine barrel. Very restrained smokes. Lemon, kumquats, fine sweetness, plenty of fresh vanilla and beautiful oak. Finish / Conclusion Mid-length finish. Amazingly clean looking malt. Rumlager and Rumfinishes are currently experiencing a minor renaissance, and quite rightly so. More notes and reviews on Facebook at #Maltkanzlei

This was a great combination of salt, pastry, and fruit. I love the notion of honey-drizzled fry bread, which just takes me back to my childhood right away, while the maritime-seaside notes keep me rooted in my island present. This grew on me a little bit each tasting as different notes came to the front. I found very little of the peat, not nearly the industrial/machine oil notes I get on other heavily peated Glen Scotia— there was just a kiss on the nose. The rum cask influence was subtle, doling out just fleeting hints of tropical fruits. This was such an easy drinker at cask strength, I can easily imagine the bottle disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Smoky fruity, yet quite light and balanced, pleasant finish of medium duration

A sweet and peat well rounded Campbeltown, no funkiness like the other from the area, but a nice brine and creamy well rounded pour this is

Aroma: fresh, eucalyptus, molasses, artificial cotton candy, in the background peat and delicate smoke Taste: hard candy from the People's Republic of Poland, herbal, peaches, molasses Finish: Bitter, cardboard, awful Rating: 3

Balance (22) Cool! Another cool, festival release! (88.5)

Tasted on 09-18-2020 at Glen Scotia Distillery.

Smoky and fruity. Sweet and refreshing. The rum casks shows very well.

An incredible dram for the 2019 Campbeltown Malts Festival, definitely my favourite of the bunch. Full of Glen Scotia character accented by lovely sweet rum casks, it is a must have for any Campbeltown fan. Value (£60) : 9/10

Very different from what I was expecting. It’s fairly light in both flavor and texture. I think it still works though. There’s some really nice estery banana funk in here, which I haven’t gotten from other rum-cask whiskies I’ve tried. Granted, I haven’t tried all that many, but still. The nose is my favourite part, as it gets a bit straightforward on the palate and especially the finish. There’s also nice smoky and industrial-funk flavours, and an especially nice mix of smoked peppers and tropical fruits. Overall, tasty, but it doesn’t quite live up to its exciting premise. Nose: Sweet funky smoke, slightly tangy and acrid. A good amount of those oily industrial notes, but it’s different enough from Springbank. Sidewalk chalk, smoked hot peppers, cooked greens, even some sundried tomatoes in olive oil. Dark, roasted, chocolatey, honeyed barley notes. Brown bananas, lime, papaya, and cantaloupe. Some caramel, brown sugar, baking spices, and pickled ginger. Palate: Medium-light body. Cereals, honey, lemon oil, and coconut up front. Then comes roasted barley in the middle, then smoked peppers, bananas, dark chocolate, and seaweed. More very dark, almost burnt notes in here. Charred wood, ash, and tobacco. Bay leaf maybe? More cantaloupe towards the back. Finish: Lasting smoke. More dark chocolate and chipotles in adobo sauce. Lingering tobacco and dead leaves.

an easily accessible Glen Scotia, the rum notes in the background perfectly underline the Campbeltown character, a great malt, 1A PLV

Reminds me of a bottle I have of Clynelish, Exclusive Malts 1997 to some extent, and of Springbank. Glen Scotia is getting better at these special bottlings, although their 15 OB was better a while back. This whisky needs water. One will lose a great deal without 1/4 to 1/2 of a teaspoon in a normal sized dram. time is also needed. About ten minutes in the glass. You can tell it’s ready when the putty flavor comes into the fore, and the nose gets more Springbanky. On the palate, there's caramel, a buttery croissant note, vanilla, and an old skool feeling/aesthetic. Oceanic. Wet sand. Sea salt. Peat. Yo ho ho and a bottle of ____ . Cool design, as well. The label is simple yet classy and small, which is striking. I really like the box for this one. I’ve been doing a lot of white ink on black myself as an artist and so I’m biased :) Metallic gold lettering. Tall narrow bottles these days from the distillery is a nice change of pace in the industry. The big raised glass seal also has an old fashioned charm that almost seems to clash with the tall narrow bottle, since bottles with raised seals were often squat, but I like it. I found it rather endearing that the cask strength very young peaty Kilkerran actually used Springbank bottles, ha! Well, Glen Scotia is maintaining a little more distance from “Mother” in Campbeltown. I actually really like the fact that all Campbeltown malts are similar. It’s kind of like going to Little Italy for dinner in New York City. Yes, there are similarities as far as the cuisine is concerned but each restaurant is unique and the good ones bring in visitors to the area and help each other to thrive. I taste tested this festival bottling next to the Springbank 15 Guadeloupe Rum from November 1. the Springbank was more complex and well just wonderful, but the GS 2019 festival bottling caught up with a bit of water and time. It never reached the perfection of my rare Society Springbank but for the money I like the festival bottling just fine and the effluvium left dried in my glass a few hours after the dram is finished is nicer. Just for fun, I also taste tested alongside a Springbank 12 CS Batch 15. WOW, what a dramtic difference. The other two are more “high pitched” and just so ethereal when compared with the big, bombastic, fusty notes of the Springbank cask strength. It caused me to realize that there is some sulfur in this batch of Springbank after all. And yet the sulfur seems almost jammy and plum-like. Wow, all three glasses are just great. The two rum casks are a different animal from the Springbank bourbon/sherry cask batch 15 release. And the batch 15 is among my faves of the CS springers.

Nice sweetness from the rum barrel, yellow fruits and light complementary smoke.

Sweet smoke, vanilla, citrus, pineapple, fruity notes, light smoke, dirty notes. Real nice! Would probably buy a bottle again for 110/120 euro's in 2023.

Being in Edinburgh I visited whisky tasting by "The Whisky Shop". That was not planned and became a real Gift from Heaven! That was a tasting of Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia and this festival release was so complex, impressive and amazing so it made me to get a bottle :)

The rum finish is present to me mostly via those lovely tropical fruit flavors. But never too dominant. Beautiful barrel work. You don't have to be afraid of smoking here. In this bottling, the smoke is only present as a background accompaniment. This Glen Scotia can't hide the Campbeltown vibes, which is good. A round thing. However, this bottling would not be a candidate for a large bottle, I lack that certain something.

Aroma: Honey harvesting, earwax, some herbs, smoked meat. Taste: hmmm... interesting, bitter and milk chocolate at the same time, garlic toast, green throat tablets. However, I have to say that I am not a fan of the finish after Guyanese rum. The finish is average for CS, a bit of salt, sweetness, but at the end for me unpleasant (paper?). Ps. After two drops of water there is a 2x increase in smoke. Glen Scotia 12 Icon has slightly more power, and is more delicate.

rated 88,5 in blind tasting of all my open bottles... i give it 88 instead of 89 in WB, still a very good one from Glen Scotia. The peat is rather hard to spot , so is the rum finish. But that's not a bad thing. Very good value.

Didn't want to mess up a good thing, so I did not add water.

Very sweet, honey-treacle aroma, which is well integrated with green apples, pears, peaches, vanilla sugar, and, quite unexpectedly, meat chips. There is a slight herbal smoke on the palate, as well as an aroma of fruit, honey and molasses, followed by notes of dark chocolate, minerals and salt. The finish is medium-long and is a continuation of the mineral and salty flavor components. However, despite the serious age of aging (almost 16 years), the release was lost against the background of its brighter neighbors in a smoky style.

Very sweet, with beautiful exotic fruits, always noticeable, but restrained oak. The light smoke gives the whisky that special something, and gives a nice counterpoint, without smoke I would be too sweet, so everything looks nice and coherent. I like it.

This is my first Glen Scotia in my glass! The bottle was also opened fresh! The nose immediately reminds me of the Auchentoshan American Oak and the taste of Springbank. This mixture is really special! A higher number of points is only denied because the single malt is not complex enough and does not go into the depth of aroma as other malts in the 90s point region do. Back to the tasting: I add a teaspoon of water to the glass ...

Whisky finishes continue to be an interesting topic in whisky circles. The practice of using a finish to bolster an otherwise underperforming malt has marred its use for more subtle manipulation of flavour and taste. This Glen Scotia definitely falls into this second category with the rum flavours adding a further layer of complexity alongside an already complex single malt. On the nose are putty, vanilla, coconut, cinnamon, pineapple, banana, a hint of mango and that distinct rum quality. The palate is mouthwatering, full and delicious. There is indeed a bit of everything here, citruses, herbals, minerals, savouries, that all jump around as the light peat notes and the rum notes mingle together. On the finish the rum flavours slowly dissolve leaving the smoke bitterness to linger. As Ralfy aptly observed, when your fellow Campbeltown Malts Festival distilleries are Springbank and Glengyle, you have to release something seriously impressive if you want to be noticed, and Glen Scotia has done just that.

aroma: peat, sea notes, salt, coconut, malibu liqueur, pineapple, meat in a hodgepodge, minerals, vanilla 87.5 Taste: pleasant and drinkable, peat, sea salt, vanilla, dark sugar, chocolate, molasses, some fruit, maybe peach, pineapple, Malibu, oak spices 88 Finish: long, vanilla, sea peat, lots of oak, pineapple, ash, yellow fruits 88

Nose: pleasant smoky notes, vanilla, some oak, exotic fruits, brown sugar, lemon zest • • Taste: the smoke is reminiscent of campfire, pineapple, honey, vanilla and a little citrus followed by a pleasant spiciness and a hint of spiciness (pepper / ginger) • • • Finish: medium length with sweet caramel syrup, slightly spicy and shortly hot

I salute Glen Scotia for writing on the box: finished in Demerara rum barrels for eight months. Unchillfiltered. Natural colour. Integrity malt as a famous youtuber would say!

Great malt! The sweetness of the rum finish is successfully complemented with the Glen Scotia distillate. I actually don't like rum barrels with whisky. Actually ... smoke, oiliness, Campbeltown Muff and the rum sweetness harmonize perfectly! Even better with a little water, more complex. I'm excited about what Glen Scotia can do if you just want to ...

N Honey, wax, cheesecake, vanilla, leather, grape, mixed dried herbs, burnt herbal bread T Burnt, varnish, vanilla, honey, soot, herbal, milky, oily, a bit of milk chocolate F Varnish and honey, leather, burnt wet wood, soot

The best festival release of Glen Scotia so far (incl.2021ed.) It takes me on a long journey from Scottish, wet, windy shores to warm, vast, tropical bays of Guyana. If I were a sailor on some old steamship this would probably be the only whisky I would drank.

Glenscotia vintage 2003 rum cask - z- tart, sour-bitter, stone fruit like cherries, sweet cherries, vanilla, floral notes, peat, smoked meat, salty bacon, thyme; s- vanilla cream, honey, sweet, countered by the bitterness of smoked meat and spices (thyme); f- consistent with the taste, initially dominated by bitter spice and peat notes, then vanilla and honey sweetness remains on the tongue, I also felt pineapple - 87.5

On the nose, the whisky smells of a harbor in Scotland and at the same time of a Caribbean port. Great. Bit dirty, fresh at the same time. It was a winter dram for me. Paid 130,- Euro a year ago, was worth it. Would pay 130 again