The Glen Scotia ‘Tawny Port’ Festival Edition is a peated Campbeltown Malt that has been matured in a mix of refill American hogsheads, medium char American oak and first fill bourbon barrels before being finished in first fill Tawny Port hogsheads and then bottled at cask strength 52.8% ABV.
Finished for 7 months in first fill Tawny Port Hogsheads, this truly limited edition has a perfectly balanced combination of Campbeltown maritime influence with soft smoky peat and blackberries from the Tawny Port influence.
Nose : Blackberry, floral notes of rose and ocean spray.
Palate : Silky mouthfeel, crisp green apple, peach syrup and vanilla with a honey sweetness.
Finish : Gentle peat smoke with blackcurrant, raspberry and clove spice.
Our Review
What I am sharing here is just a snapshot of some of the key facts about this whisky.
The 2020 Campbeltown Festival was due to go ahead in mid May of 2020, however, like many whisky festivals up and down the country, it had to be cancelled due to restrictions put im place after the COVID-19 pandemic caused much concern.
However, Glen having such an incredible whisky for this years festival still released their limited edition bottling for us to enjoy.
The whisky is a vatting of several aged whiskies; It has some 2004 heavy peated spirit which was matured in refill ex-bourbon oak, then there is 2005 heavily peated spirit which was matured in recharred ex-bourbon oak and then finally some 2006 medium peated from 1st fill ex-bourbon oak. These were then, after the vatting stage, filled into 1st fill Tawny Port hogsheads for 7 months before bottling. (the box states 6 months).
The peat levels for the heavily peated are 40-50ppm and the Medium Peated 20-25ppm, this is Glen s most peated release to date at just under 40ppm.
Glen will be releasing approximately 15,000 bottles to the market for this release. The official distillery information for this offering is as follows:
Having tried both the 2018 Festval Release of Ruby Port Finish and the 2019 Festival Release of Rum Cask Finish, this release was highly anticipated and we couldn't wait to pop the cork when it arrived.
On the nose the first thing that you notice is the distinct Glen signature of sea salt spray intertwinned with peat. This is quite intense at first, after you give yourself time to adjust and let the dram settle you will notice sweet honey fruit, berry fruit like a fruits of the forest dessert, some vanilla cream maybe and I picked some heather.
On the palate is starts with the sea spray and peat, which continues right through to the finish. The spirit isn't too hot, at 52.8% it doesn't present itself that high. There is vanilla with berry fruits such as strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant. There are fruit cake spices of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg.
With water added the nose is sweeter with more cream present and on the palate I experienced some apple and pear with cream. It is fantastic, however, if you haven't experienced heavily peated whisky, this is on par with, if not more peat heavy than laphroaig 10, then you may want to introduce yourself gradually to peat. But grab a bottle, with 15,000 available, there should be opportunity to grab a bottle, if not to keep until you feel you are ready to enjoy it. I will certainly be getting another bottle or two if my budget allows.
After we recorded the video Brian of Brians Malt Musings invited us to attend an online twitter tasting with hastag #TawnyPort14, it was an excellent evening and we exchanged tweets reviewing everything from the colour, peat level to nose and palate. We let our pour breathe as we nosed and tasted over an hour, in that time, the whisky changed. After about 40 minutes the peat seemed to drop a level allowing the fruits to pop more on the nose revealing a definite fruits of the forest dessert experience with a honey sweet vanilla cream, the peat was still there being the core to the whole event, but it appeared less intense. An incredible whisky, so much that, contrary to what we said in our video, we had to score it, we give it 91/100, our highest score for a whisky to date.