Glen Scotia 8 Year Peated PX Cask Finish
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke in early 2020, one of its countless casualties was the shuttering of events to help minimize the spread of infection. The 2022 Campbeltown Malts Festival was the first one to be held since 2019 and like many other whisky festivals, special bottlings were released to mark the occasion. While Campbeltown only currently maintains three operating distilleries within the region and thus does not have quite the footprint as, say, the Feis Ile, the enthusiasm of all attendees and participants more than makes up for it. Glen Scotia was founded in 1832 by Stewart & Galbraith and Company. It has passed through several owners over the centuries and was most recently purchased by the Loch Lomond Group in 2014. While there are currently five core expressions, the Glen Scotia 8 Year Peated PX Cask Finish was matured for seven and a half years in American first fill bourbon barrels before spending another year finishing in Pedro Ximénez hogsheads.
Stauning Smoke
Stauning was founded in 2005 by nine friends who wanted to make exceptinoal whisky in Denmark, specically usng local grains like rye and barley and using small copper pot stills (currently 24 of them). 100% of the grain is floor-malted at the distillery and no coloring or chill filtering is used. While the distillery has two decades of experience now, and a variety of core offerings to showcase, their global footprint has only expanded in recent years through additional funding from spirits conglomerate Diageo. Their only single malt is the Stauning Smoke, sourced from two Danish farms and lightly peated. The barley is kiln dried using local peat and heather and is meant to evoke a West Coast Danish terroir; matured in first-fill bourbon barrels, first-fill fortified wine and spirits casks, and heavy charred new American white oak barrels.
Bunnahabhain Toiteach a Dhà
There is remote and then there is Bunnahabhain remote. Located on the island of Islay off the coast of Scotland, the distillery was only accessible by boat until the 1960s, when a single-track road was finally installed. The distillery is also known for having the tallest stills on Islay and producing one of the few non-peated whiskies there, a place renowned for its use of peated malts. However, distillers love experimentation and Bunnahabhain eventually tried using smoked barley with the debut of the Toiteach in 2008. The Toiteach a Dhà, Gaelic for “The Smokey Two”, is part of the distillery’s core range and serves as a sequel of sorts to the first. It is made up of around 75% ex-Oloroso sherry and 25% ex-bourbon casks, which is a higher proportion of sherry influence that found in other core offerings.