The first Scapa on ths blog, distilled in September 1993 and bottled by Douglas Laing in the Old Malt Cask series.
Scapa shares the island of Orkney with Highland Park. In 1994, the distillery was mothballed, refurbished, operated during short intermittent periods, and re-opened in 2005 (although they still only operate Monday to Wednesday). They’re only maturing in first fill bourbon wood and the complete production is bottled as a single malt.
Scapa 15 yo 1993 (50%, Douglas Laing OMC 2008, refill hogshead, ref. 4713,
331 btl.)
Nose: starts fresh and youthful with a nice fruity sweetness. Apples and pears. Vanilla. Very lightly coastal. A few heathery notes and a little wax maybe. Simple but certainly not bad.
Mouth: grainy with a bittersweet aroma that holds the middle between fizzy aspirin and grapefruit juice. Not an attractive development in my opinion… Then a soft vanilla sweetness, dusty flavours and resin. And again big grapefruit flavours. Really bitter at times and hard to spot other flavours.
Finish: long, bittersweet with a lemon / salt combo.
I’m afraid this Scapa doesn’t hit the right notes for me. There must be better expressions of this distillery. Around € 70.
Score: 72/100