Introducing our 2023 ‘Campbeltown Malts Festival Limited Edition’ release

The wait is over!!
Introducing our 2023 ‘Campbeltown Malts Festival Limited Edition’ release with its first-ever on-pack virtual experience.

Iain and the team are delighted to unveil our 2023 Festival Edition Release – a limited-edition bottling to mark the Campbeltown Malts Festival (23-24th May 2023), the yearly event hosted in our hometown to celebrate the region’s rich history.

In keeping with our tradition of bold innovative styles and flavours for this annual global release, this year’s 11-Year-Old lightly peated single malt has been finished for 12 months in white port casks. It is brimming with bright spiced stone fruit flavours, fragrant prune and fig notes, and a sandalwood spice, all intertwined with a distinctly-Campbeltown soft smoke and sea salt.

But that’s not all…far from it in fact! The packaging of the latest release is embossed with a bespoke QR code giving our fans further afield a chance to transport themselves into the heart of the distillery for a unique new digital experience, the “Glen Scotia Whisky Experiment”.

Led by award-winning spirits writer, TV presenter, OurWhisky Founder, and good friend, Becky Paskin, the virtual video experiment takes viewers on a sensory exploration through Campbeltown, intentionally manipulating sight, colour, and sound, as Becky guides us to pour a dram and consider how its flavour is influenced by visuals and music in the experience.

She is joined by Glen Scotia master distiller and distillery manager, Iain McAlister, as the pair take a walk through our distinctive landscape. The region, which is characterised by its climate, nature, and location to the sea, is a deeply sensorial spot, defined by the elements, which also play an important role in its whisky-making.

The project follows Becky and Iain’s Whisky Experiment in person at last year’s Malts Festival, as we continue to seek new ways to bring Campbeltown to audiences around the world.

The bottling itself stays true to the classic Campbeltown whisky character, while offering something intriguing and bold in its unique flavour profile. Available to purchase online and in specialist retailers around the world, the 70cl bottle (54.7% ABV) retails at £65.

Tasting notes

Nose

Warming spiced stone fruit, stewed white peach & cloves, with a fresh lemongrass and a slight mineral element

Palette

Molasses, caramel sweetness with prune and fig notes, a waxed wood and sandalwood spice

Finish

Fills the mouth with a long fragrant finish

Iain McAlister, Glen Scotia master distiller and distillery manager, said: “As our fanbase continues to grow around the world, we wanted to find a way to give those who might not be able to join us at the Malts Festival this year a rich experience of our home.

“The Whisky Experiment is just that, and provides a fascinating approach to whisky tasting, as Becky encourages us to reconsider what’s in our glass again and again, as the environment transforms in front of us. I love that it can be done time and time again with any Glen Scotia dram, wherever you are in the world.

“This year’s Festival Release is another superb, limited-edition that showcases the scope of what Glen Scotia can offer; the white port cask finish provides something interesting and different for us, while still maintaining that wonderful fruity, robust, and subtly saline Campbeltown signature profile.”

In Becky’s own words: “We had such a brilliant time at last year’s Festival bringing to life the sights and sounds of Campbeltown through the medium of whisky, and we wanted to share this wonderful, sensorial experience with everyone,

“The idea behind the Glen Scotia Whisky Experiment is guided by the way our sense of taste is dictated by the environment we’re in; so, what we taste in our glass will be affected by our setting and Campbeltown is a fantastic place to recreate.

“This is a chance to rip up the rule book on traditional whisky tasting notes, have an open mind, and find new possibilities, which is the most exciting part – drams can be completely re-imagined.”

The Campbeltown Malts Festival is a celebration of the region once known as the ‘Victorian Whisky Capital of the World’ due to its illustrious past and the role whisky-making has played in the town for over 200 years.  It celebrates the exceptional whisky-production capabilities of Scotland’s smallest whisky-making region through a series of events and tastings that explore Glen Scotia’s award-winning portfolio