Glen Scotia 9 Year (SMWS 93.170 "Mermaid Karate")

 

The fifth and penultimate bottle of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") March outturn tasting preview at the Jack Rose Saloon in Washington DC, this was my favorite, I think. It certainly has the best name of the night! "Mermaid Karate" is right up there with the most memorable names I've seen like "Doctor Blowtorch" and "Nice to Meat You." 

Glen Scotia is probably the least heralded of the vaunted Campbeltown distilleries, after Springbank (and Longrow and Hazelburn) and Kilkerran. I hear the fewest things about Glen Scotia, which has a VERY distinctive signature series of flavors that this bottle encapsulates perfectly. 

Here are the official notes:

An unusually pure expression of these now notoriously funky stocks we thought. The initial nose was all about purity and elegance with ethereal medicines, seawater, dried seaweed and dried herbs in umami broth. Beyond that we also noted petrol, green olives and samphire in salted butter. With reduction it became more powerfully saline and sharp with salted dried fish, flash fried calamari, salt and pepper squid, smoked red chilli, crushed aspirin and English mustard powder. The neat palate was sharply medicinal again, with pure seawater, smoked sea salt, pickling brine and white hot peat embers. Reduction brought out tartar sauce, briny capers, pink sea salt, iodine drops, aniseed distillate, TCP and smoked paprika. 

Yeah, that's pretty much on the mark. Bottled at 58.6% ABV after 9 years in a first fill bourbon barrel, let's dig right into it:

Nose: Immediate notes of sweet antiseptic. Medicinal gauze, freshly unwrapped. With some time in the glass, coastal notes emerge: salt, rope, smoke, moss. Sweet and earthy both. Quintessential Glen Scotia nose. I probably would have guessed this correctly if pressed to guess. 

Mouthfeel: Thick, swirling, viscous. 

Palate: Butter, anchovies/kippers, salt, smoke, more raw sugar, hints of gasoline. Chili pepper. Has a certain Ardbeg thing going on, but lighter and sweeter. A little less rich than the nose was. 

Finish: Smoke and hints of tar/coal and a declining sweetness. 

Verdict: A classical expression of the Glen Scotia house style. I was quite tempted to purchase this one, but ultimately decided I'd had it before and didn't need it back on my shelf quite this soon. But worth exploring - it's unusual and there is nothing else quite like it out there.