Glen Scotia: Icons Of Campbeltown Release No 2: Medium Peated Barolo Red Wine Cask Finish (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 14 Years: 56.8% ABV)
Visual: Deep rich apricot skin touched gold. Slow thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Vanilla cake sponge with icing sugar. Fig rolls. Moss. Lightly smoked beef. Noticeable but not burning alcohol. Raisins. Mulled wine. Pencil shavings. Water adds some liquorice. Peppery – white and black pepper. Mezcal.
Body: Quickly burning alcohol. Chewy. Dry oak. Spicy. Tannins. Dry treacle. Mulled wine. Cloves. Oily. Water makes so much smoother. Toffee. Still chewy. Vanilla. Warming. Oily peat. Spicy red grapes.
Finish: Oaken. Dried fruit mix. Bitter red wine. Cloves. Soot. Dried beef slices. Dried red grapes. Madeira cake. Water adds fudge. Smoked beef. Moss. Fig rolls. Spicy red wine. Oily peat. Black berry and red currants.
Conclusion: Neat this is immense, but almost too big. The aroma promises a lot, the 14 years meaning that the high abv has surprising little burn here, but this smoothness does not follow through into the body. The body quickly gets spirity on the tongue, which makes it hard to get the nuances. It is impressively chewy and oily though, the flavor may be hard to open up but the mouthfeel is amazing. The flavours here can come across a bit dry and a bit too oaken. Not bad just not at its best.
The best part of the dram here comes after a few sips, waaaaay into the finish, as the alcohol passes away you get hints of the rich range of flavor that is locked up in this dram.
The true joy in this dram is water, where you find your sweet spot to get what you want out of it. Used right you lose just some of the chewiness, but get in return red wine, dark fruit and peaty meaty notes in much more accessible ways and the oaken notes lessen. It feels like it gets sweeter as you add water, but without losing that spicy red wine or peaty meaty character.
So, any complaints about it like this? Not many. In fact mainly just one. Mentally I can’t help but compare it to the Gaja Barolo finished Longrow 7 year, and not just that but my distant rose tinted memories of it. It was amazing, one of my favorite whiskies ever.
This, another peated campbeltown whisky with the same finish, if a few more years, can’t help but be compared, and by vague memory I prefer the Longrow. However this is now, and not only it it really good but I can buy this right now for non scalper prices. Which is a huge point in its favour.
A very good dram, that just needs a drop of water.
Background: Somehow a while back I subscribed to Glen Scotia’s mailing list. Still can’t remember what caused it, but it resulted in me getting a mail about this, a Barolo wine finished whisky. Now, Longrow Gaja Barolo was one of my favorite drams ever back in the day, I’d imagine it still would be if I had managed to try it again in the past decade, but Barolo aged whisky seems rare as hell. So this, Campbeltown, Medium Peated, barolo finished, cask strength, sounded like it may potentially scratch a similar itch, so I ordered it from their website quickly. Part of the Icons of Campbellton series, the art is inspired by a depiction of Saint Michael vs a fire breathing dragon. Cool art I will admit by Joel Holtzman. Dragons make everything cooler. The whisky itself was inspired by Glen Scotia workers helping fight fire at another distillery in 1899. Which is also cool. The whisky was primarily aged in bourbon before six months finish in the Barolo cask. Music wise went with Arcturus: La Masquerade Infernale. A huge, weird, album that would suit a big unusual whisky. I prefer “The Sham Mirrors” as an album technically, but this album is so big and weird I still love it.
