Campbeltown Night

 

The (hopefully) last Zoom tasting!

September's tasting was, we hope, the last of our regular monthly events to take place remotely via Zoom, at least for the time being. October would see us back in the surroundings of the Briton's Protection. But for this tasting, we had a range of premium whiskies from Campbeltown to try.

2x Springbank

Campbeltown was once the whisky capital of the world, but declined dramatically during the early part of the 20th century and there are now just three distilleries, although that is just enough for it to retain its designation as a whisky 'region' in its own right. Those are Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle, and we had whiskies from each to try as part of the line up.

We started off with two drams from Springbank. The first was a distillery bottling under the Hazelburn brand, a single cask 15-year-old released in 2018. Somewhat unusually, it had full maturation in a Cognac butt.

This got the evening off to a strong start. A bit of a salty tang at first, and it gave way to a very thick, buttery finish. Beautiful all round. Some drinkers had to add a bit of water to fully enjoy it, and duly reported waves of flavour on the finish, along with a good mouthfeel.

Glen Scotia 17yo

It was just as well we got to enjoy it, because bottles are pretty scarce. It was originally £94 but one went for £250 at a recent auction. It was 53.9%.

For a counterpoint we moved onto a second Springbank, this time an eight-year-old aged in fresh sherry casks and bottled under the distillery's own name, from the Campbeltown Malts Festival 2019. This was sweet on the nose, so there was no mistaking the sherry. On the palate, we got tobacco, a real spicy, peppery taste, and overall it tasted quite dry. It was better with a bit of water, as that opened up the already impressive nose a bit further. Burnt toffee was one tasting shout at this point. In your face as a dram, but with a lot going for it.

We felt this didn't necessarily taste like an eight-year-old, but also that it might have improved still further with a bit longer maturation. We bought ours for £65 but at a recent auction it went for £275. It was 56.8%.

Glen Scotia 14yo

Leaving Springbank behind, we went to Glen Scotia for drams three and four. Number three was a 17-year-old, the Master Distillers Edition from 2020, aged in refill American oak. Many of us in the club are fans of the distillery's output today, it offers some good value drams, so we were looking forward to tasting this. Again, we were not disappointed!

There was a little bit of coconut in there, someone felt, and the nose and the finish were the high points, if anything a bit stronger than the actual bit in the middle. Some drops of water opened it up nicely. Some felt this was very slightly uninspiring compared with what had gone before, but others appreciated the subtletly of it. It was £170, and there aren't any more bottles available anywhere as far as we could tell.

Longrow 15yo

The other Glen Scotia was also from 2020, a peated bottling from that year's Malts Festival. It was a 14-year-old, with an American oak and port finish. There was a hint of peat but that was all, didn't hit as strongly as you might have expected. Certainly perfectly drinkable, maybe even more drinkable than some of the big hitters from the earlier in the tasting, but maybe less memorable as a result. Someone tried this with a bit of water and said it transformed the dram into something spectacular - "a taste explosion" - but a a few of us had foolishly finished ours before getting this advice!

It was 52.8% and cost £75 at the time, but the cheapest bottle we could find online today was going for £250.

Glengyle 5yo

We were back to Springbank for dram five, a 15-year-old Longrow, again bottled for the 2019 Malts Festival, and matured in first fill rum. This was slightly sweet on the nose, gentlre, although we weren't sure about the end of the finish - a bit bitter, or briney we felt. Not bad overall but not a hell raiser. No need to add any water here. This cost £75 at the time but is currently going for four times that online, and it was 52.4%.

And last it was off to Glengyle, the last of the trio of Campbeltown distilleries. Owned by J&A Mitchell, which also operates Springbank, it was revived early this century. Here, we were trying a 2021 distillery bottling under the Kilkerran name - the company was not able to re-acquire the Glengyle brand! - a five-year-old matured in fresh Oloroso sherry casks.

Custard, caramel, in fact a creme caramel, with burnt vanilla on the nose. A little young perhaps, a bit green, an instant alcoholic sort of a taste. Maybe a bit too young, although others thought it was really nice. Water killed it though! But still worth the £50 we paid for it, although it's now going for £100.

To the dram of the night voting then, and there was a rare victory for the opening whisky of the evening - dram number one!

Thanks to all club members for once again attending this virtual tasting and to the committee for assembling this terrific line up - a set of whiskies which would cost around £1300 to buy today.