Glen Scotia 13 Year Old 2005 single Cask Selection #17/413-8

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 finish with the oloroso cask that was bottled for Kirsch Whisky.

The nose is very herbal on all kinds of green garden herbs and lots of maritime notes, but also somewhat astringent on sour candy mixed with… acetone. The fruit – that is clearly ready in the starting blocks – never gets a chance. Very weird and not really pleasant at first. You need to leave it for ten minutes at least before the astringency lessens and trades it for caramel, molded wood and mango.

On the palate, it’s a whole other story. Now sweet notes of chocolate, plums, dates, pineapple on the barbecue and dried figs come first, before cloves and chili pepper put your mouth aflame. The smoke becomes thick, salt rears its head and everything seems to fall into place.

The finish is this malt is almost endless. Nicely creamy all of a sudden.

The nose gave me a bit of a scare, but once past the lips, this is a lovely Glen Scotia.

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