Glen Scotia 10yr old Bordeaux Red Wine Cask 2021 Festival release 56.1% ABV

glen scotia 2021 festival release
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The 2021 annual Glen Scotia release for the Campbeltown Malts Festival. This is the first year Glen Scotia has selected unpeated spirit for its festival bottling. Matured initially in first-fill bourbon barrels and then finished in Bordeaux red wine casks, this 10 year old whisky imbues fruit and spice characters coupled nicely with the distillery’s coastal character.

Royal Mile Whiskies

Appearance

There’s a pinkish hue to this light gold dram, the swirl line is medium to thick, with slow running medium thick legs.

Nose

Now this is different. It’s quite sweet with cream soda, then a dustiness comes through, followed by perfume and botanical aromas for me. Red apple skins and red berries and tropical fruits, Opal fruits for us oldies, create a lovely fusion of sweet fruit aromas.

More time and i’m going to say vanilla custard on red berry strudel, the faint perfume note is still here, with swizzle fizzy children’s sweets, and white pepper with wood wax.

Palate

Nice mouthfeel from the off, and the ABV on this one doesn’t slap, but there’s plenty of spices again. There’s syrup from a can of strawberries bringing loads of sweetness, cranberries and orange zest add citrus , white pepper, vanilla, perhaps paprika, that would be a first for me, then anise and mocha coffee bitterness come through towards the end.

Finish

Still chest warming spicy at this point, much like the end of the palate, with the addition of cigar leaves, lots of milk chocolate, and a little drying touch.

My thoughts

Of the 5 Glen Scotia’s we tasted during this session this was the most unusual, but also very nice. I’d say it’s refreshing in a way, with a body that’s largely fruit sweetness. The un-peated Glen Scotia does come through, the ABV is superb, it has the lovely mouthfeel too, and like the others we tasted it is a “big” dram, and i’d definitely have a bottle.


A big thank you goes out to Michael Henry – @LLBlender, for joining us on this tasting, you can follow him and us using the buttons below.

Royal Mile Whiskies can be found here.

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