Whisky : Scapa 20 Year (2000), Gordon & MacPhail for K&L

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands

ABV : 56.2%

Cask : Refill Sherry Hogshead

Age : 20 Years (Distilled 2000, Bottled 30 Nov. 2020)

Nose : Fruit, salt, and wood. The sherry cask proffered notes of dried fruit, musty leather, and salted plum. A surprising spirit heat came through between bruised stone fruits, black licorice, and toffee.

Palate : Medium-bodied with musty sherry, leather, and salt on the finish. Dried fruits and leather shoes came to mind with mellow notes of tobacco, treacle, and dark chocolate. Stone fruit pits, leather, and salt provided a dry finish— hints of campfire appeared on the edges with bitter orange and grapefruit.

Finish : Lingering dry dark chocolate and salt.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Over-baked Toffee Blondies

Notes :  It is not every day one comes across a Scapa from an independent bottler which made this a real treat to try. Even though I was not a massive fan of the flavor profile, the novelty of the bottle gave it a certain appeal, and I can easily see why K&L picked it out from Gordon and MacPhail. 

Yet the dram was more intriguing than just being an uncommon distillery. Scapa was mothballed from 1994 to 2004. During that period, the distillery only opened a few weeks out of the year when Highland Park employees came over to fire up the Lomond stills.  They kept enough product maturing that the distillery remained on life-support and ready to reopen when the whisky market improved in the 2000s.  The fact that this bottle originated from that mothball period made it an intriguing piece of whisky history to taste or have on the shelf.

I had never tried Scapa before, so I had no idea what to expect with this, and I am still unsure what to expect from the distillery. The flavor profile was loaded with tons of dry sherry notes and a pleasantly understated sweetness which allowed the dram to verge on a chocolate-earthiness, especially at the finish. I strongly suspect fans of sherried profiles, especially semi-dry ones, will find a lot more to love on this than I did, as I am not a big sherry cask nut. 

Image Credit: Whisky Base