Glen Scotia 13 Year Old 2005 Single Cask Selection #17/413-2

I am happy to put two sister cask from Glen Scotia head-to-head: cask #17/413-2 against cask #17/413-8, both put to sleep in 2005 and both bottled in 2019. The first is a Tawny Port Hogshead that yielded 299 bottles, the second an oloroso sherry cask that yielded 328 bottles. Both were bottled at cask strength. Let’s start with the port cask.

Oh, yes… the dirty edge of Glen Scotia is there, but the port cask easily overpowers that and embraces you with a warm, sweet nose full of red and dark fruit, soft smoke and a nice salty edge. I also get some chocolate, hazelnuts and some acacia honey over apricots. Even some chutney. A drop of olive oil at extra topping.

Sturdy arrival with lots of spices, while the peat delivers a big smoke development. When the smoke has cleared a little and the spices extinguished, the sweet notes shine bright. And it’s good. Black grapes, apricots, cranberries and dried figs.

The finish is fairly long, feisty with some stubborn peat smoke. It dies a surprisingly salty death.

This is all very good.

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