Notes on The Casual Dram:12 - Sunday 25 August - Mean Doses Taproom
Notes on the lineup… (tickets available here)
Glen Scotia 11yo 'Festival Release 2023' 54.7%
Cask - white port finish for 12 months - lightly peated
The distillery, originally named Scotia, was built in 1832 and changed hands many times before it was renamed Glen Scotia by Bloch Bros, who purchased the distillery after then current owner, Duncan MacCallum, committed suicide (his ghost is said to haunt the distillery to this day). Its output was primarily used for blending and it produces light, medium and heavily peated styles as a result. It wasn’t until 2005 that a 12 year old single malt was released and a broader core range followed in 2021.
Proximity to the sea - 300 metres
Roseisle 12yo Special Release 2023 56.5%
Cask - 1st fill ex-bourbon and refill
Diageo’s Roseisle is (along with Aisla Bay) part of a new wave of distilleries specifically designed to produce a range of different styles of spirit.
Six of its seven pairs of stills can switch between stainless steel or standard copper shell and tube condensers. When light grassy spirit is required, the copper condensers are flicked on and fermentation times are extended. If a heavier malt is required the fermentation times are reduced and the stainless steel condensers are brought into action - reducing the copper conversation and resulting in a meatier weightier spirit.
Proximity to the sea - 1400 metres
Laphroaig SMWS 29.282 9yo ‘Massive aniseed heat and searing peat’ 62.3%
2nd fill ex-bourbon barrel
Key facts for Laphroaig’s heavy style…
Floor maltings account for 20% of its malt as the kiln on site is thought to produce a more creosote-like phenolic quality.
A very long fore shot run means there are less estery notes in the new make, while a deeper cut means that heavier phenolics are captured.
Bourbon casks are the norm here - for sweetness to counter the heavy peat (minimum 35ppm).
Proximity to the sea - 5 metres
Glenglassaugh 9yo 2012 Cask 522 58.9%
Cask - American wine hogshead - peated
The style at Glenglassaugh is medium weight and very fruity with a heavy honeyed floral character.
The distillery is one of many which appeared during the boom at the end of the 19th century. It closed with the ensuing crash at the turn of the century and didn’t reopen until the 1960s. It closed again in the 1980s and wasn’t brought back to life until 2008. In 2013 it became the third member of the BenRiach Distillery Co. (with BenRiach and GlenDronach).
It is now owned by Jack Daniel’s producer Brown-Forman and Rachel Barrie is the master blender.
Proximity to the sea - 150 metres
