Glen Scotia 17yo (46%, Duthies, 2009)

Robert W. Duthie was the nephew of William Cadenhead and he ran the company after the passing of Mr. Cadenhead in 1904.  Cadenhead’s recently re-established the brand. Bottled at 46% without chill filtration or the addition of colouring.

The nose reveals…. whoa, this is nice! There is some good toffee, damp hay, sweet malt and barley. The aromas build as it opens in the glass and further examination some really good oak/cocoa and after some more time the aromas lean towards the more meaty heavier side of the spectrum.  Very pleasant, there are some moments of Campbeltown thrown in addition to some brine and a whiff of smoke in the shape of an highly agitated Icelandic volcano…..just kidding…there is a whiff of smoke and some sharp sour moments. There is a lot going on in the glass and with more time it simply keeps on evolving. Fragrant. The taste is at first different from the nose is many ways but right off resembles the later stages of the aromas and is very Campbeltown like, complex, toffeed with a good back ground of malt and cocoa followed by some meatiness and then some complexity from the gentle smoke and more wood spice. Oh, this is really nice. A tiny, tiny hint of some pungent notes but they give character and back bone to the other flavours and do nit detract. Green malt at the very end. The finish is malty at first along with some green malt and a hint of smoke, a little (tiny) bit and then the cocoa and malt arrive, hand in hand to take a final bow before some not unexpected malty dryness brings down the curtain a long while later.

Very good.

$102 at Kensington Calgary (thank you for the generous sample Andrew)

Score 89 Points