We proceed with pleasure our tour of the tasting room of Glen Scotia trying the official 15yo; and we try it with great curiosity, since it’s the first time in our career where we put our hands on a GS aged entirely in American Oak (ex-bourbon? Not necessarily…). How will react this nervous and dirty distillate with this wood?
N: you can immediately feel a clear “dirty” note, indeed, with something clearly sulfuric (bacon, baked vegetables) which alternates to some quite deep red fruits. Red apples and strawberry jam. Even some “marron glace”, on a milky and hazelnut chocolate, tasty and sweet. It becomes almost creamy, but maintains some “vegetal” and malty notes until the end.
P: light bodied, easy to drink but very tasty. Again a sulfuric wave, but there’s more: spices (wood and pepper, clove), bergamot, dehydrated red fruit. Citrus fruits (orange, zest). It seems dry, vegetal, almost clean in its being so “dirty”. It goes down easily. Particular and never unpleasant; unusual.
F: long and spiced. On notes of wood, pepper, tamarind, oranges and red fruits. Pancetta.
This bottling persuaded us way more compared with the, still very honest, Double Cask. The wood indeed smoothens some of the angles (probably more related to the a certain immaturity of the distillate and not to its peculiarities, otherwise intact) that are anyway still visible, exposed like trophies. All those notes of red fruits suggest possibly that a quota of the casks was seasoned with sherry. Anyway 85/100 for a whisky that perhaps won’t be loved by everyone, but able to satisfy whoever will give it some extra minute.
Recommended soundtrack: La Suerte – L’origine del mondo.
