Phil made the bottle selection this month (first in divvies them all up) and instantly assigned me this Glen Scotia purely because of the name. Good man. Sounds like my sort of thing.
Nose: Ample greasiness here with butter and pan fats conjoined with buttered pastries, oven-baked rolls and crème patisserie that has picked up some sort of industrial dust whilst being factor processed. Leather and cloth open up to touches of orange peel, whilst shaved chocolate and fresh coffee beans sit with lemon posset. The addition of water offers creaminess from rice pudding, oiliness from engine oil and touches of industrially-baked apple.
Taste: Bolder now. Less weighty than the grease-packed nose implied, but still with plenty of cling. Machine oils and residual ashiness (not peat mind), sit with chocolate powder, olive brine and mentholated oak. The development heads back towards creaminess with custard tarts spinkled with iron filings and touches of distant haylofts. Reduction softens things up and reveals both fruitiness – lemon – together with dirty nuttiness and leather satchels.
Finish: Medium to long. Fattiness linger and is are joined by graphite powder and fading citric acid.
Not quite as grubby and extreme as I’d hoped for from the name – but nevertheless, there are plenty of mechanised motes here – from kitchen fats through to manufacturing lubricants. And in that regard this most certainly provides both a dip into some of the dirtier qualities of Scotia as well as a whisky that has plenty of nuance to untangle. Pick of the month.