Glen Scotia Victoriana Whisky Review!

A reasonably priced & accessible cask strength single malt from Campbeltown's middle child; Glen Scotia. The distillery's following is slowly growing, and this could be one of the region's most overlooked single malts!

In a world where Springbank 12-year old Cask Strength is still impossible to find and most allocations don't even hit the shelves before they hit the auction sites, where do we go for our cask strength Campbeltown fix? Yes, that's right, Kilkerran 8-year old Cask Strength. But here in Australia we only get one small shipment of that delicious dram per year, so where do we go once that allocation has been snapped up? Err... OK yes, that's right, Kilkerran Heavily Peated. But what if your timing is off and you can't get either of the cask strength Kilkerrans? Well there's a third distillery in Campbeltown folks; Glen Scotia! Often forgotten and overlooked even by us whisky geeks, this is probably the most popular of the three distilleries with the sort of whisky drinker that doesn't know where Campbeltown is, and doesn't know about the other two distilleries because they aren't sitting on the shelves at their local chain bottle shop / liquor store. Glen Scotia Distillery is the largest of the current Campbeltown trio, and by far the most widely available of the three, producing around three-times that of Springbank Distillery and about six-times that of Glengyle Distillery (Kilkerran). This is the only Campbeltown single malt that you'll find in travel retail / duty free stores, and the only Campbeltown single malt that you'll find in the larger chain bottle shops here in Australia - unfortunately that's due to them importing it directly from the distillery, but never mind that for now. This is the more conventional of the Campbeltown trio in terms of production, sourcing both unpeated, lightly peated, and heavily peated commercial malted barley from external maltsters, long fermenting in stainless steel washbacks, and distilling in a single pair of copper pot stills heated by steam coils and fitted with shell & tube condensers. But as we know, production equipment alone doesn't mean that the distillery is producing a generic single malt, you'll still find the Campbeltown characteristics in this distillery's whisky. Crucially, Glen Scotia doesn't cause a blip on the flipper's or investor's radar screens, nobody is really collecting this stuff. Which means it's purely for drinking and enjoying!

Glen Scotia has a chequered past, originally opening in 1832 during Campbeltown's whisky gold rush, and one of only two surviving distilleries from that period. The distillery went through a number of ownership changes over the 190 years since, and despite that history it's actually spent less time mothballed than the more famous Springbank. Glen Scotia's single malts had a mixed reputation during the 2000s-2010s, but the distillery was sold in the late-2000s which saw fermentation times increased to an average of 128-hours, and the distillery was sold to Loch Lomond group in 2014 which saw the new owners revamp the distillery's wood policy. Glen Scotia was relaunched circa 2015 after that ownership change, with the then-new core range line up consisting of the non-age statement 'Double Cask' which is a young PX sherry cask finish at 46%, the underrated 15-year old which is ex-bourbon matured at 46%, and the non-age statement Victoriana that we're looking at today. Since then they've also added an entry-level "Campbeltown Harbour" bottling at 40% ABV aimed squarely at the supermarkets and big retail chains, plus an 18-year old and 25-year old bottling. Some of these claim to be lightly peated, but I'm yet to find any overt peat influence in these core range bottlings. There are also limited releases for the annual Campbeltown Malts Festival which are generally young-ish whiskies that are finished in some exotic cask type - the 2025 release is a heavily peated 9-year old red wine finish. 

Victoriana has been around for quite a while now, but has been through a couple of significant changes during its tenure, the main one being that it switched from being bottled at a batch strength of 51.5% ABV to being bottled at a cask strength of 54.2%. I believe this change took place circa 2019, but it took a couple of years for the stock to filter down to the Australian market. Like other cask strength batch release single malts these vattings are blended to that strength without dilution, just like Glenfarclas 105 and a few others. The other major change in Victoriana seems to have happened around 2020 along with a labelling and packaging update, and the added colouring in the 51.5% version was dropped. This 2020 update saw some PX sherry casks added to the vatting, where previously it had been 100% finished in heavily charred virgin American oak. Initial maturation is still first-fill and refill ex-bourbon casks, but according to the distillery manager the vatting is now around 30% PX sherry casks and 70% heavily charred virgin American oak casks, mostly at around 10-12 years of age. Personally I wouldn't have picked this change based on smell or taste, I don't find any overt sherry influence in Victoriana. So maybe those PX casks are refill, and/or the finishing period is only short. On the flipside the influence of those heavily charred virgin American oak casks is immediately apparent, albeit slightly dialled down over the old 51.5% ABV version. All versions have been clearly declared (pun intended) to be non-chill filtered. Let's get to it!

Glen Scotia Victoriana, NAS, 54.2%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Matured in first- and second-fill ex-bourbon casks, finished in heavy char virgin American oak and PX sherry casks. Cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Oily, peppery (scent, not alcohol), rich. Used machine oils, red apple chips / crisps (dried), oat cakes, flashes of rich vanilla custard around the edges. Freshly cracked black pepper, a handful of damp barley, rich salted caramel sauce. Freshly cut timber, oily varnish, dried lemon & orange peels. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Oily, malty, rich, salty. Campbeltown! Slight touch of heat. 

Taste: Malty, salty entry. Salted caramel fudge with extra sea salt flakes. Machine oils, peanut brittle, oily furniture polish. Dried red apple again, a couple of fresh blackberries, black pepper, and dried lemon & orange peel again. Adds something slightly metallic as it breathes, like rusting iron - but it's very subtle!

Finish: Long length. Warming oak, wood spices (cinnamon), grated ginger. More peanut brittle and over-salted caramel. Dried red apple, salt-laden driftwood, clean machine oils, touch of curry leaf, lemon peel. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5, and close to a 4. 

Notes: Lovely stuff. Oily, salty, rich, and woody but not overly so. This is a very Campbeltown whisky - just cleaner in style than most of the other two distilleries' stuff. Victoriana is underrated in comparison - here in Australia this is the cheapest and most widely available cask strength Campbeltown single malt on the shelves, by a huge margin. It's "Campbeltown-y" enough to satisfy us whisky geeks, without being too "Campbeltown-y" to put off any newcomers. There's plenty of flavour & character in this Glen Scotia, and it simultaneously feels both modern & clean and old-school & funky. I'd have no problem putting Victoriana up against Springbank 10-year old or Kilkerran 12-year old, particularly since it's cask strength where the other two are diluted to 46%. In this country the Springbank is priced $30-40 AUD higher than the Scotia so it's competitively priced, and is far from bland or boring. Certainly worth grabbing if you haven't had the pleasure. 

Cheers!