Christmas is coming up, as you know, and one of the things that I like to look forward at Christmastime, in addition to all the heartwarming tree-hugging hippie crap like hanging out with family, world peace, goodwill to all men and all that malarkey, is the acquisition of some mind-expanding books and some equally mind-expanding whisky. Same goes for my birthday a couple of short months later, which is great but means that after that short-term bonanza of gift-receiving between December and February there is a ten-month period when I am theoretically expected to survive on what I've been given until the next Christmas rolls around. Now I am a man of some grit and willpower but that may not be possible. Not so much with the books, where I have a substantial backlog beyond what I may be gifted each year, and where top-ups can be had in selected second-hand outlets for only a couple of quid, but definitely with the whisky. I don't drink (burp) a massive amount of it, but this year, like a few other previous years, I found myself exhausting the last of the bottles in around October.
So in these circumstances you either limp on to Christmas on just beer and wine and the occasional schooner of creme de menthe from the back of the cupboard, or you keep an eye out for bargain purchases in supermarkets. And just occasionally you will stumble across something unusual and interesting, as I did when I was in (I think) Sainsbury's the other week: a bottle of Glen Scotia for around 25 quid. But why is this unusual and interesting? Well, two different questions, really: unusual because I don't think I've seen whisky from this distillery in a supermarket before, interesting because Glen Scotia is one of only three remaining distilleries in the Campbeltown region of Scotland. That region comprises the geographical area around the town of - you've guessed it - Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre. This used to be a massive centre for whisky production, but, a bit like the Lowland region, has dwindled to only a handful of distilleries. Confusingly these three distilleries put out between them five different single malts: Glen Scotia puts out, as you might expect, Glen Scotia, Glengyle puts out Kilkerran (eh, it's a long story) and Springbank puts out not only (as you might expect) Springbank, but also Hazelburn and Longrow.
There is another bit of blurb on the box which purports to be some tasting notes from their master distiller and says "sea spray and gentle smoke". I don't want to argue with the master distiller, and it could be just because I've had a cold for the last week or so, but I don't get much of either of those things, gentle or otherwise. What I get is some perfectly nice but not massively memorable whisky-flavoured liquid, not dissimilar to various other whiskies produced in the Highland and Lowland regions to which Campeltown is adjacent. There's perhaps just a hint of something a bit darker and Marmite-y of the sort that you get with, say, Tobermory. Maybe that's the "sea" thing coming through, or maybe that's just bollocks. Who knows?
There's not really a great deal else to add here except a word about water: I used to be a bit sniffy about the addition of water to whisky but I'm persuaded that in some cases (richly flavoured and/or peated whiskies, or those bottled at an ABV above the standard 40%) a sploosh can be nice and open things up a bit flavour-wise. For something a bit more delicate like the Glen Scotia I think a sploosh knocks the stuffing out of it and you're better sticking with neat. But, hey, if you've paid for it you can drink it how you like, indeed you may cram it up your ass if you so wish.
