Glen Scotia Distillery

Malt Whisky Yearbook 2018
*It takes a lot of money to bring back a distillery from the nearly dead to one with increased production and ten new whiskies in the range that are sold globally. Exponent Private Equity, who took over Glen Scotia in 2014, have made a huge difference.
But you also need dedicated people like Iain McAllister, the distillery manager for the past 10 years. Campbeltown born and bred, Iain's passion for the distillery and the brand has been vital to the success. Apart from the day-to-day work, his engagement in establishing a visitor centre and the distillery becoming a part of Campbeltown Whisky Festival has meant a lot to promote the brand.
Glen Scotia is equipped with a traditional 2.8 ton cast iron mash tun, nine washbacks made of stainless steel and one pair of stills. The shortest fermentation time is 70 hours but can reach over 100 hours. For some years, the distillery had a very short middle cut (possibly the shortest in the industry), starting to collect the spirit at 71% and stopping at 68%. This has now changed and they come off spirit at 63%, at least for the unpeated distillations. The production 2017 will be 10 mashes per week resulting in 540,000 litres of pure alcohol, of which 10% is a combination of lightly peated (15ppm) and heavily peated (58ppm) spirit.
Since spring 2015, the core range consists of three expressions; Double Cask (matured in bourbon casks and with a 3-4 month Finish in PX sherry), 15 year old (American oak and a short finish in oloroso casks) and the gently peated Victoriana which has been bottled at cask strength. In 2017, another two expressions were added to the range – a 25 year old matured in ex-bourbon casks and married for 12 months in first fill bourbon and an 18 year old. The owners also released the first bottlings for duty free in 2017; the Glen Scotia Campbeltown 1832 and a 16 year old. A number of single cask bottlings available only at the distillery, have been released, most of them in connection with the open day of the distillery in May every year.*

WHISKYs der Welt
*Der Aufstieg und Fall von Campbeltown – am äußeren Ende des Mull of Kintyre gelegen – als >>Whiskyopolis<< ist gut dokumentiert. So etwa das Schicksal der Springbank Distillery, die alle Schwierigkeiten meisterte und heute Kultstatus genießt. Aber sie war nicht die einzige, auch die unbekanntere Glen Scotia konnte sich retten. Mit nur einem Paar Stills um 1830 von der Familie Galbraith gegründet, blieb die Brennerei für den Rest des Jahrhunderts in deren Eigentum. Nach wechselnden Besitzverhältnissen kam sie 1994 zu Glen Catrine (Loch Lomond Distillers).*