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Quick hit review. White port is a bit of an anomaly, featuring a lighter style than their red counterparts. The nose of this Glen Scotia accentuates orchard fruits, honey and fresh ginger, while subtle peat smoke, codfish and hints of salt emerge from the back. On the palate, fruits and spices arrive together, emphasizing orange zest, grilled pineapple and mild pepper. It's quite vivid and potent. Mineral, sooty and minty notes prevail in the aftertaste. A genuinely interesting experiment, although the port finish is not particularly well-integrated. RATING: 3.9/5.0 stars ≙ 86 pts → FIRST-CLASS [-]

Tasted and judged again in my favorite style, i.e. 2x blind and then once more after the reveal. This time I was rather unpleasantly surprised. I would not have expected it to be the Glen Scotia distillery. More precisely, this particular product of theirs did not really dazzle me twice. They do better things.

Opened about a year ago and sitting at 2/3, so this has been getting ample shelf acclimatization. It's keeping up well, may even have improved from what I remember.

At the last Campbeltown Malts Festival bottling of Glen Scotia (8yo peated PX Cask Finish) I only wrote notes after half the bottle was through. But didn't get better. I did the same here (because he was too restless for me at the beginning) - and he really did well, the contact with oxygen did him a lot of good. Very nice bottling with delicious smoked fruits as key aromas.

Nice, subtle peated whisky, some rubber, some pepper. Not the best Scotia I had, but certainly a pleasant one.

Lovely salinity, orchard fruit, very light traces of peat on the nose. More fruit on the palate, exotic and dried. Salty and spicy finish. A very solid Glen Scotia showing the strength of its spirit.

Light golden colour. Oily structure.

Smoke with notes of the sea (iodine), fruit with a rag on the farm, the taste is pleasantly sweet and spicy, even spicy. The finish is quite long, astringent-dry, sharp. 22-22-22-22

A comparably clean and fruity GS. Gives my previous favorite, the 2003/2019 rum cask finish, a run for its money.

Aroma Little smoke, berries (raspberry), citrus, sweetish The taste Sweetish, little smoke, more berries, spicy wood aftertaste Medium length, oak spice, pepper

Aroma：Pronounced；Palate：86/100; Aftertaste：Medium.

A delicious Glen Scotia that has a lot going for it, especially super integrated alcohol and a really exciting yet drinkable profile.

Shows the typical Campbeltown touch that I don't like. There's nothing that excites me about it either. Solid malt.

on a woody, winey nose, on white grapes, malt, barley, simply whisky grassy mouth, hay, then peach, apple, on the scents of the actual orchard; honeyed return, dust, caramel, and dry smoke, on the ashes of the morning fire finish on cooked white fruits, honey and sweet spices, the sensation of a glass of white wine the next morning, creamy, smooth.

real Campbeltown feeling, very nice

3+10+9+3+50

This was a sample courtesy of Peatbogger. This is a weird one because I don't want to punish it too harshly because of the nose and at the end of the day it's what it tastes like what counts. I like this and would buy a bottle. Ha ha I've just seen the price. Probably not.

Aroma: slightly smoky, delicate, very fruity and welcoming - for those who don't like a strong alcohol aroma, it can be a bit strong, but overall it is very balanced and complex Taste: it is sweet, not sweet - sweet, spicy, even spicy, but with an excellent warm finish - great

I am convinced that this malt, given enough time, can be even more compelling than it already is. Unfortunately, I was under too much time pressure when writing these notes. Notes from a blind tasting.

Beautiful smoothness at the start, red but light fruits, quetsche and lychee, red and white currants. Pomegranate seeds. Then it becomes woody, with black berries and damp bark, undergrowth, but also marine touches, iodine, limestone and moss. On the palate, it's sweet, prune, apricot, oranges, and we also recognize the distillery markers, both mineral and marine, cola and caramel, beautiful spices, intense without being too strong, cardamom and nutmeg, light pepper . Fairly long and ample finish, charcoal, a touch of liquorice, syrupy, almost vinous, a grain of blackcurrant. Clove. The finish in White Port barrels brings a beautiful fruitiness, but we also find all the markers of the distillery, which gives us a beautiful bottling, pleasant to drink. https://ilikesky2020.blogspot.com/2023/07/glen-scotia-11-yo-campbeltown-malts.html

Excellent Glen Scotia, standing on a par with good examples of Ledaig and Port Charlotte. The phenolicity on the malt seems to be quite high - in the region of 40 ppm. One of the most tart whiskys in the world for me! And indeed, the associative festival release of 2021 Bordeaux is red for me, and 2023 Whist Port is white! 21.5 23 22 21.5

In general, each version of the Glen Scotia festival is good and this one also does not differ from the previous years. The more time you give it to catch your breath, the more delicate it becomes with lots of sweetness and mineral notes. Alcohol very well hidden. The whole is dominated by a slightly fermented white wine, which gives a pleasant aftertaste and slightly stings on the tongue.

As in the past two years, a really nice festival bottling. I like it!

Also in 2023, Glen Scotia will launch a specially matured whisky at the Campbeltown Malts Festival. This year's bottling is 11 years old and matured in White Port Cask. In the past there have already been beautiful festival bottlings from Ruby Port and Tawny Port Casks. It's nice that Glen Scotia doesn't make a huge hype about the festival bottlings, but bottles them in sufficient quantities so that they are available in the shops after the festival. Because so far the festival bottling has never disappointed. This bottling is lightly peated, not colored, not chill filtered and has cask strength. glen-efze.de

A thoroughly delicate malt that delivers what it says on the tin! Malty sweetness and honey from a relatively young malt, nice fruity notes and some acidity from the port wine, paired with the typical Glen Scotia aromas of dirt and some smoke. But he is also a bit strong and sharp because he is not that old yet. Tastes really good, but is not very complex. good malt A by-catch candidate on offer for u60€.

A very successful dram in which the components (lightly) peat, white port and a beautiful oak barrel come into their own wonderfully without fighting each other. A good PLV.

I admit to only having had a sample of this bottling, but I did spend between one and two hours with it, and can decidedly say that it is not one for me. The slightly farmy distillate, the sweet dessert wine and the persistent odd dryness are not my quaich of uisge.

S 8 This expression put a strong focus on the salinity and sugary fruits aspect of Glen Scotia. Unlike the 2022 Festival Release that’s screaming PX, this year’s Festival Release doesn’t remind me too much of white port. It’s all integrated into the whisky for one objective, to enhance the Glen Scotia/Campbeltown style, in an elegant way. 86-90 - A to-share bottle

A PLV miracle. Extremely complex, first fruity and cheesy, then it becomes spicy and peaty. 88 points

Port fits pretty good for me, it's pretty cakey at nose, finish is really nice, at first didn't like taste at all then i found some swedish salty liquorice... oce i found it i could not ignore it... I will dare to say at todays market value for money is okay!

Surprisingly young.

Basically a solid whisky, towards the end the oak note is too dominant for me - 09.06.2023

Sour without end. Absolutely not a nice barrel.

much interesting than the 2024 one

A very decent and interesting whisky. It does not get lost in a glass for a very long time and continues to play with all colors

The Scotia profile comes across well. It appears more youthful and barrel-focused than the 8-year-old PX Festival. Another successful festival bottling, and quite reasonably priced.

Wonderful combination of light smoke and light port, very pleasant, really worth every cent in terms of price, good barrels and good distillate

https://malt-musings.blogspot.com/2023/04/glen-scotia-campbeltown-malts-festival.html

Not a bad whisky, but not worth the 70 euro's which it must cost.

Not a typical Glen Scotia, but heyyy that's the great thing about whisky- it's an adventure and every bottle is a new story, a new beginning. That is the thing I like so much about it! Tastes, stories, new things to discover, the experimentation. And this Campeltown Malts Festival edition fits right in this- it's a bit of a special dram; bit dirty and less peated then expected but so good. I can't put my finger on it- it's so special, it's ashy, it's fruity, it's mineral, it's metallic, it's chemical, and it's none of these things- all at the same time. Happy to owe a bottle (a bottle that is slowly evaporating)... Special and enjoyable!

Oily, intense, fresh and vibrant, combining Glen Scotia character with nice barrel influence

Old books, leather, dusty oak, slightly overripe grapes, caramel, pepper, damp earth, berries, flowers, coastal salinity, a bit of industrial funk, a hint of smoke. The palate is sweeter than the nose, though the finish brings back some of the earthy elements and a trace of tobacco. Water reveals more fresh fruits. Excellent.

Nose: rainier cherries, sugarplums, speculoos, blueberry blintzes, ash, cinder toffee and crushed seashells, cafe noir biscuits and pansies, whitecurrants Palate: vanilla and damson preserve, Finish: ash and red jalapenos, pumice and panda red liquorice, rooibos and victoria plums With water Nose: bilberry jam and chilean flame raisins, soil coated candystripe beetroot, mulled spices, persian candy floss and daikon radish, cherry pits and wet clay Palate: poached plums, quinces in red wine and szechuan pepper Finish: stewed apricots, rhubarb and cassia bark

A very nice combination of sweetness, latrice and tropical fruits. Like a candy cone in a nosing glass.

0495-GLEN SCOTIA 11 yo CAMPBELTOWN MALTS FESTIVAL 2023 LIGHTLY PEATED WHITE PORT CASK FINISH SINGLE MALT SCOTCH Whisky 54.7% ...Quite well balanced. Aromas and flavors consistent. Nothing stands out, hardly anything sticks out. The label "stands" that it is slightly peaty and that is indeed the case. Lightly touched with a peaty aftertaste. A little bit of everything here - a little fruity, a little sweet, a little salty, a little sea, a little spicy. 24,000 bottles went into the world. I suppose one of them could be yours, or yours. In my opinion - worth it!

Fantastic dram! Sea saltiness, caramel pastry, a hint of black pepper, white grapes.... I originally wanted to open a bottle of GS 15 on a cold Saturday evening, but I finally decided on this gem. And I didn't complain...

A truly beautiful bottling, the price/performance ratio is exceptional. The peat is superbly integrated, while the complexity exceeds what might be considered necessary. Quite enjoyable! Price performance: Very good Would I buy it again?: I would.

Not a bad dram, but not sure if the quality warrants "limited edition release" status. It's a pleasant whisky that has some sharp young notes and verges on being astringent without any water. You can tell it's from the Campbeltown region. The empty glass the morning after smells delicious. :-)

I've been on a real journey with this one. These Scotia CMF bottlings have been widely talked about for some time. People raved about the heavily peated PX finish from 2022 and similarly, this year's one seems to have also gone down well, with only a few minor grumbles from the heavily peated enthusiasts. This 100ml bottle arrived over the summer as part of ongoing bottle splits, and I've taken my sweet time writing it up. I wasn't too impressed on my first try as the nose was quite closed and I had trouble coaxing out anything to take note of. At about halfway down the sample, something seemed to click. Either it had opened up, or I stumbled into the right headspace to connect with it. The longer I take, the more smoke I'm getting for a start. It's no peat-bomb, but I do now get smoke punctuating this in a way that was absent a few months ago. In the nose, it's quite light, arriving right at the end after a procession of slightly mineral and metallic fruits that contrast the doughy yeast and salted candied corn. It’s quite cheesy as well, with lactic lemon and cheesy funk forming a bridge between the peat smoke and the malt. For me, the coastal character became really apparent in the palate which is quite approachable and the most conventional part of the experience, marrying sweet and salty aspects with a light industrial smoke, just a little fruit and the start of fine and dry spice. In the tail the warming spices continue, but are joined by eucalyptus that keep it well behaved as the astringency arrives with some crystalised citrus peel in tow. As things settle down, the salinity returns with a tart minerality and some dilute and mildly artificial sweetness that linger together with the remaining tingly heat. It grew on me. Not my favourite GS, but interesting and ultimately a rewarding dram.

The first Campbeltown Malts Festival bottling that I had in my glass. Unfortunately the bottle is now empty, but I bought another one cheaply - a reserve that I can look forward to. The finish in white port wine barrels brings delicious berry fruit notes with only a slight sweetness, spiced with subtle vanilla and not too strong peat smoke. Very good!

Lightly peated and white port, an interesting combination and curious how that works with the Glen Scotia distillate. White grapes, dried apricot, young strawberries and oranges, honey coated ginger, some salt here and there, mild smoke and those typical dirty GS aromas which I like. This is actually quite in sync where the cask is far from overshadowing the GS profile. Sip after sip I’m liking it more. 85-86.

Glen Scotia releases a lot of weird variations in casks, peat levels and ages, so for a true nerd there is always something to look for. I gotta say for me it's more often miss than hit, but that does not apply to this very funky expression. It has a nice balance between some challenging elements (peat and port), but where it could have gone rather dirty this Glen Scotia turned out very summery fresh. Seems to me light peat gives the GS spirit more stamina to go up against cask influences as exotic as this one. Well done!

Had few expectations because of the finish and was pleasantly surprised!

Very good balanced. The subtle White Port influence leaves enough space for the distillery character to play the leading part. Really good sweetness and light fruits (especially pears, pineapple) with nice honey and vanilla aspects are accompanied by the classic Campletown Funk (oily mechanical aspects with subtle salty and smoky notes). Intense and powerful body. Rock-solid handcrafted Single Malt, but again proof that Glen Scotia is a Single Malt for the more experienced whisky drinkers...

The first whisky of the 2023 Advent calendar is this fruity-spicy Glen Scotia. The malt offers great exotic fruits, but is not particularly sweet but rather spicy and dry.

Full review... https://www.idrinkscotch.com/post/glen-scotia-duo

First sip, very special taste, citrus, vanilla, pepper. Second sip, hmm, lots of honey now... Third sip (after 15 minutes), oeh this is spicy and very peppery! Im a bit confused now! Not a bad whisky tho..

Great combination of fruit, sweet and mineral aromas, light smoke. Wonderful, great PLV

Fruity, sweet, short finish

It's a peculiar malt with notes of cheese, candyfloss, smoky & medicinal peat, grape gummy, sweet & sour mix, orange candies, and salt. I enjoyed the dram but I would hesitate to buy a whole bottle.

Sweet and light smoke. Absolutely recommended for that price

Nose, vanilla Taste, I think there was a lot of alcohol on the taste

A little less fruity than I expected, but the maritime character of Glen Scotia comes through well, and the alcohol is well integrated. For me, a successful, idiosyncratic festival bottling. This slightly dirty character, in particular, might not make this whisky a favorite for everyone. A good amount of water is a great addition to this dram.

Nice cozy whisky with high sweetness and a little smokiness

An excellently successful finish that is subtle and wonderfully balanced in its aromas. The smoke accompanies the aromas pleasantly and is hardly noticeable after a while with the whisky.

Not good

Very nice. At the level of last year's bottling with 8 years. Maybe something even better? In the finish, I like it a bit better after my first impression.

A beautiful, fresh summer whisky with a typical Glen Scotia character. Maybe not the best of the festival releases so far, but it's pretty good.

Nose: very subtle smoke, strawberries and raspberries, citrus. Vanilla Palate: Alcohol well integrated with nice sweetness, smoke more in the background, strawberries, spicy wood Finish: Medium-length finish, light pepper, oak, some salt, slightly stronger alcohol with a little water: A little more wood in the nose and I imagine I can smell the smoke a little more, in my opinion the taste tends to drop off with water. Conclusion: Another nice bottling from Glen Scotia. The smoke is more or less non-existent for me as a Peathead. If you liked the Port bottlings 2018 and 2020, you will get your money's worth here, even if the finish is not that dominant and is less sweet, which I like, because the pure Glen Scotia is still recognizable. It's a shame that the Campbeltown Malts Festival bottlings are getting more expensive every year. Price RRP 74.90.

Nose: Exotic white and green fruits, creamy impression yet plenty of oak spice. Grapes and canned white fruits, light peat, touch of brine or mineral note and a puff of smoke. Palate: Spicy arrival. Exotic fruit notes, pineapple, vanilla. Light smoke on the development. Spice, lots of it. It improves with water, it subdues the spices and enhances the fruit notes, the peat also becomes more balanced. Creamy or syrupy sweet fruits balanced with peat, smoke, oak and some tannins.

Aroma: here you are immediately greeted by a really pleasant, mild, peaty sweetness with light maritime notes of seaweed and saltiness that are so strongly associated with whisky from Campbeltown. This is really, really good! A little deeper, there is also a sour fruitiness that tightens the candy nibbles and is followed by mild citrus, caramel and vanilla. The scent is wonderful! Taste: offers a medium-bodied sweet and slightly dry opening. Something reminiscent of black currants and mixes well with the peatiness, which, despite being slightly smoky, presents itself clearly in the taste as well - without taking over for that reason. The balance between the somewhat austere, dry sweetness and the peatiness is fine. There is also a hint of saltiness in the taste. The finish is relatively short and a light fruitiness of grapes is mixed with notes of citrus. Left behind, a light spiciness that slowly fades into a soft veil of peat smoke. Verdict: Glen Scotia proves once again that they are a force to be reckoned with for anyone who loves peat smoked whisky. The question is, why don't they have such an edition in their standard range? 88 points.

Nice to see a lightly peated Glen Scotia. Peat monsters do have their place but there's plenty of them, not too many distillers play with gentle peat. The smoke mixes in with the fruity influences from the spirit and cask very well. Takes a drop of water well, it will emphasise the fruity flavours as well as make the smoke a little more 'sooty'.

A really nice dram if somewhat hard to characterize. The white port shows through distinctively and things remain in balance with the exception some lingering bitterness at the end.

Nose: caramel-fruity aroma, spicy and sweet. Burnt caramel, sweet grapes, fresh raisins, florality, pineapple, minerality, spice, lemon zest, light charcoal smoke, fresh oak. Palate: slightly scalding, peppery, ashy, sweet-spicy, candy-like. Burnt caramel, ash, pepper mixture, fruity sweetness, lemon zest, tart oak Finish: caramel-fruity, sweet, ash-pepper, warming, tart Balance: A sweet-fruity, candy-spicy malt with a slight peat influence. It's rare to find a whisky aged in a white port, so call this an experiment. The result did not impress me, at least the other festival releases that I tried, I liked more N22, P21, F21, B20

Smell: Slightly defensive nose, white chocolate, only very subtle smoke, machine oil, lightly perfumed, lychee, raspberry... Taste: sweetish, light basic tone, fruity, white wine notes, nice spicy oak as a counterpart, salty, yellow ripe pomaceous fruit, alcohol well integrated, medium to long finish Colour: pastel gold, medium watermark, clear Conclusion: Not incredibly complex, but still really entertaining - and for the money asked for in the current market environment, the price is almost in the "snapper range" ...

List of recent opened bottles: Lagavulin 12 Diageo 23 Glengoyne legacy 3 Ben Nevis 6 yo (carn mor) Ledaig Rioja finish (Sinclair series) Springbank amontillado (SR 2024) And now this! Out of quite a random selection, of which were all very palatable, this seems a class above. Nose: Sweet, tropical fruits, honey, tobacco and surprisingly peat smoke (strange for an unpeated whisky!) Taste; 54.7% abv should blow your head off and generally require water. This defo doesn’t! Very silky and subtle. White port cask…not something I can say I’ve had but must have a “de-harshing” effect of whisky! Struggling to find flavours..tropical fruit and just very pleasant! Finish is delicate, pleasant and moreish! These festival releases are underrated from GS, some sound quite underwhelming but, of the ones I’ve sampled, it is difficult to decide weather they are drinkers or collectors!

Nose: leather, cinnamon, marzipan, cherry Taste: leather, salt, port wine, dark chocolate Finish: long, heavy, very warm, lots of cherry.

A great whisky! Wonderfully complex and clearly recognizable as Glen Scotia. It's really fun! Odor: -Smoke/Peat (campfire, mineral) -Oak (spicy) -Salt/Sea -Waste oil, diesel or similar >Campbeltown Note -Peach -Malt (Berliner) -Strawberry jam -Ginger -Almond-cream -Mint (very light) -Clove -Caramel -Coconut -Cranberry -Plum (coming later) Taste: -Smoke/Peat (mineral, campfire) -Caramel -Salt/Sea -Apricot -Almond-cream -Malt (Berliner) -Cinnamon -Waste oil, diesel or similar>Campbeltown Note -Cranberry -Oak -Strawberry jam -Mint (very light)

Value for money rating: 80. I would be willing to buy it if it costs 600 or 700, but I personally don’t agree with it if it costs more than 1,000. Overall, this is a pretty good GlenScotia, at least among the GlenScotias I've had.

I don't really like smoky whiskys (received as a gift for Christmas), but this one makes you forget the smoke a bit. There's a lot of spice and malty on the nose. On the palate it is dry to slightly bitter, which I like very much. The alcohol is nicely integrated. For me it would be even nicer without smoke, but I still think this whisky is very good. You can also enjoy it undiluted.

A good whisky is slightly alcoholic at first, but this quickly fades. Then, a bright vanilla aroma takes center stage, along with various confectionery or bakery notes. The influence of the port cask is subtle, and it's hard to tell whether you actually tasted it or imagined it. But sweet wine tones and hints of various dried fruits, particularly prunes, definitely emerge. Despite its solid strength, the taste is quite smooth; the whisky is easy to drink; as my tasting colleague rightly pointed out, another couple of degrees would have been too much. Whisky needs to breathe in the glass. I also really liked the aroma of the empty glass.

For me, the light peat along with the fruitiness and sweetness of the white port moves this Scotia down the street closer to its Campbeltown neighbor. Combine that with the nearly perfect drinking strength (I still like a small amount of water) and I love this. But only 2 cl at a time. Any more and I find the finish becomes overly sweet and drags down the experience. Thus an 88 instead of one or two points higher.

It was a wedding day. Kilts laid out in the hotel room, and my youngest son about to be married. The venue was the historic Royal George Hotel, in Perth and just around the corner sat a whisky shop—too convenient to ignore. After a haircut and shave, I slipped in to pick up a “wedding day bottle.” Browsing the shelves, my eye settled on the Glen Scotia Campbeltown Festival Malts 2023: 11 years old, lightly peated, finished in white port casks, bottled at 54.7%. Whisky is so often about occasion—and this was an occasion. We dressed, donned our kilts, checked our sporrans, made sure the sgian dubhs were in place, and—together with my two sons and son-in-law—opened the bottle and toasted the groom. I enjoyed the dram well enough at the time, but the bottle has lingered longer than most. Part of that, I think, is down to the “experiment” that came with it. A QR code invites you into a sensory exercise: images and sounds paired with the whisky. In theory, you taste against a shifting backdrop. In practice? It works—perhaps too well. One sequence showed waves crashing against cliffs, with the suggestion to seek out salt. I sought—and found—and then couldn’t quite unfind it. For a long while, every return to the glass brought an insistent salinity. So I set the bottle aside. And now, I’m back. Returning, I try to forget the sea. To approach it clean - but once a note has been planted, it’s hard to know whether you’re tasting the whisky or remembering it. On the nose, the white port shows clearly: sweetness, a custard note, and something bready—digestive biscuit or shortbread. Then I wonder, are these notes really there or is it what I think should be there? There’s a gentle smoke, present but not pushy. The palate doesn’t quite follow the nose. The smoke steps forward (not Islay-like, but firmer), with touches of fudge and fruit. And still—if I let it—there’s that salt, waiting to reassert itself. The finish is medium, with a slight bitterness and a trailing wisp of smoke. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Slàinte mhath.

22 and 21 clearly better, but still very readable. Great tobacco menthol finish.

Elegant variation of a Cambpeltowner. The 2022 was more on the topspin side of the theme.

The nose is dense, rich, creamy fruity with delicate peat, dates, figs sherry notes with mineral ozone freshness, many shades and halftones, confectionery tones, toast with butter, freshly cut dry exotic wood, carpentry shop dust, herbs, slightly burnt match, sea pebbles Excellent development in the grocery. No off-putting notes, very complex and deep. the taste is dry, sweet and sour, with a slight bitterness, slightly salty, very complex, in general repeats the aroma the taste continues with a pleasant long aftertaste with a light bituminous flavor, moderately bitter coffee-chocolate tone, delicate peat, a little smoke from a heated dry board, toasted bread with butter. The balance is superb. 88/100

Very peppery, dry

On first tasting, nice, but prefer the 2022 8 year old edition. It even comes across older then this 11 year old. Alcohol could be a bit more integrated and comes across very sour. It's got some nice fresh fruits (strawberries), and grain character, doesn't come across very smoky. Let's see how the bottle opens up tho.

Disappointing. Nose is very nice, floral, sea breeze, salt But taste is too alcoholic and white port made it too bitter, with green hazelnut notes on the forefront. Bitter blackcurrant is how I would describe it, not that well balanced for me. Finish medium-long. Adding water helps a lot.