Another night, another tasting of this Glen Scotia. As I approached the shelf to grab the bottle, I saw the Japanese-imposter that I procured not too long ago and was reminded that it, like this Glen Scotia, is also fifteen years of age. Finding the numeric coincidence interesting, I decided to pour a bit of the Shin to accompany tonight's dram.
Same rules as before - capture my impressions in real-time and post at the conclusion with minimal editing. No TV viewing companion this evening, instead the heavenly sounds of Oscar Peterson and his Trio are gently wafting through the room.
The Smell
Holy moly.... this is genuinely mind-blowing. These two whiskies smell *very* similar to each other. I'll admit, I poured the Shin as a bit of a goof, thinking it would be nothing like the Glen Scotia, but alas, the joke is on me. These are so close in aroma, I'm wondering if the Shin's mystery distillery of origin is a Campbeltown distillery? Statistically unlikely of course, but these two really do smell similar. As an aside, smelling these two side-by-side really brings into focus how little Mizunara influence there is in the Shin.
As for specific smells in the Glen Scotia, caramel, faint vanilla, not-so-faint oak, toasted oak though, not charred/burnt oak. A bit of leather furniture and white pepper. There is a grassy, fresh grass vibe just lingering in the far reaches of the nose.
The Taste
Neat from the bottle, the Glen Scotia still has too much of an alcohol punch. The electricity running over my tongue blocks out most of the flavors. I definitely feel the Glen Scotia needs some water to be totally enjoyable. As for the Shin - these two are similar in taste, but not as similar as they were on the nose. Not only does the Shin have a good bit more oak than the Glen Scotia, but the oak is of a different variety - more charred than toasted. I am going to put the Shin to the side for the moment and continue on with the Glen Scotia.
The peppery spice remains front and center on the taste. That impression has remained consistent from the beginning. Barley sugar, a molasses sweetness rather than a brown-sugar caramel sweetness, think a savory, not overly sweet dessert. After the sweetness fades, a rush of more spice and oak and then slightly drying tannins lead into the finish. The drying finish is reminiscent of a very gentle black tea.
I know this sounds wackadoo, but there is a rye-bread impression to the tail-end of a sip tonight. I am flashing back to visiting some of my favorite Jewish or German delis and having a pastrami/corned beef on rye. There is a distinctive pungent spice that rye bread can deposit on the back of your tongue/throat and that is precisely the impression I am getting tonight. That is a first for this whisky.
The Finish
The finish remains medium-length for me. We start off with a nice mouth-coating of pepper, then toasted oak, a bit of lightly-sweetened black tea, and then the spice reemerges and remains until the finish fades away into the ether. All in all, a very pleasant finish that is totally consistent with the nose and taste of the whisky.
Fourth Pour Overall
I've tossed around plenty of flip-flopping speculation on whether the Glen Scotia is artificially colored or not. Tonight, alongside the Shin, I am less positive that the Glen Scotia is artificially colored. The Shin proclaims on its label that it is indeed natural color, yet it is darker than the Glen Scotia. Both are the same age, both were aged in American oak (though the Shin had a finishing in Mizunara oak), and yet the Shin is darker. Of course, this could be due to a number of variables, but taking the Shin at its word that it is natural color, I am still leaning that the Glen Scotia is artificially colored due to its mild orange glow compared to the Shin's reddish-brown hue.
As for night four, I'd say a comparable level of enjoyment to night three. I feel like this whisky has plateaued for me in terms of improvement. It has been a solid improvement however - after night one, I was not all that impressed by the malt and was not convinced there would be a night two. Yet night two marked such an improvement that I eagerly anticipated a night three with Glen Scotia. This whisky has gone from meh on night one to a pretty good on night four. While I don't plan on always keeping a bottle of this malt on the shelf, it has proven itself to be a solid, respectable whisky.
In the coming days, I'll plan on having a fifth tasting where I share reviews and tasting notes that I find on Glen Scotia. I will at some point, a handful of months down the road, crack the bottle again to see if an extended period of rest with a good chunk of air in the bottle changes the experience to any degree, perhaps even revealing new smells and tastes.
Until August my good friends. Cheers and salutations. Oh and OP, you sir are a piano player for the ages.
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