Review 100 - 7th February 2020

This review marks the celebration of the 1st Year anniversary of Whisky Resource and our 100th numbered review (Ok we have more reviews than that).

Thinking about how we could celebrate we thought we would look back at the highest scoring whisky we have reviewed so far, the 2020 Campbeltown Malts Festival Tawy Port Finish from Glen Scotia, if you haven't see the original review it is available here, we score this amazing whisky 91 out of 100, achieving a value score of 96 out of 100. While some whiskies have come close, nothing seems to better the jammy maritime influence of the Tawny finished single malt.

However, we thought it was fitting to pitch this awesome dram against its siblings, the Glen Scotia 2018 Ruby Port Finish and the Glen Scotia 2019 Rum Finish, both bottlings for the Campbeltown Malt Festival for their respective years.
This review looks at the 2019 Rum finish, if you want to skip to the 2018 Ruby Port Finish, follow the link.

The Glen Scotia Rum Cask finish, like the Ruby, is a vintage release, that is, the ex-bourbon casks used for the initial maturation were all filled with a distillate from the same year, in this case 2003. We understand that the 2003 barrel contents were then transferred to ex-guanan rum casks for a final maturation period of about 8 months, before vatting and being bottled at 51.3% ABV. It is non chill filtered and natural colour. At the time it was released it was retailed for around £70, it recieves a value score of 100 out of 100 as its presentation hits the key value markers, short of being a single cask offering. Once again this whisky represents great value, but how does it nose and taste?

On the nose, it starts with a the classic Campbeltown characteristics of maritime sea air of salt and sweet peat, the sea spray is showing more of a calm day. This edition is a little more medicinal on the nose with some more expressive phenolics, such as iodine or TCP, its like walking into a hospital examination room which was recently cleaned. Its tropical from the rum with pineapple and banana, however, the rum is a little more restrained on the nose, there isn't too much brown sugar. The alcohol isn't too hot on the nose as doesn't suggest it is above 50%.

On the palate; It begins not as oily as the Ruby, it is still velvety mouth coating. Its a dry sweetness with threads of tropical fruit such as pineapple, some orange and citrus. It has spice such as nutmeg, clove and ginger. The alcohol is also not showing itself giving a little nip. The peat is sweet and present but not as dominant as the ruby. This is still an fantastic whisky. However, the Ruby just edges it on both nose and palate.

For an overall score, we, in this instance of a side by side tasting enjoyed this as much as the Tawny Port and looking at the fill levels of the bottle, are grabbing it as much. We purchased the rum finish at around the same time as the Tawny was released. It achieves 91 out of 92, equalling the Tawny Port finish. In this instance of the tasting, the Ruby wins the day, however, on any other day the rum could win or the tawny. What it demonstrate is how fantastically good each of these three whiskies are in their own right. One thing that is a certaintly, is, how much we are looking forward to the 2021 Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malt Festival release.