Our first region-based tasting took us to Campbeltown, keen to showcase full-bodied characters, oily/thick textures and bags of fruity flavour – the ‘Campbeltown Funk’.
The drams:
- Glen Scotia 16yr (Travel Retail, 46%, 1L £84.95)
- Campbeltown Blended Malt 8 Year Old 2014 Hidden Spirits HS02B (48%, 70cl, £79.95)
- Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malts Festival Edition 2024 (56.2%, £65.00)
- Hazelburn Oloroso 12yr 2023 (49.9%, RRP £75, £180-£250 Current)
- SMWS Cask no. 93.122 Baldrick’s Cosmic Tardis (Glen Scotia, 58.4%, RRP £60/2019)
- Springbank Local Barley 2024 (54.1%, RRP£105, £500-£1000 Current) *** Dram of the night ***
- Kilkerran 8yo Sherry Cask – Batch 10 – 2024 release (57.4%, £55)
With the nights getting colder, on arrival to St Crux, attendees took a hot toddy (Glen Scotia 16yr) accompanied by one of Marks & Spencer’s finest stollen bites, before trying the 1st dram from Italian indie Hidden Spirits. Their Dailuaine 13yr was a previous dram of the night at Cocoa & Drams I but there was less love for this blend (8yr, 48%, £80), potentially a teaspooned Glen Scotia?
The Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malts Festival Edition 2024 (56.2%, £65) received more love with this smooth, Fino-finish 9yr old highlighting the quality and value that can be found in less hyped Campbeltown drams.
Entering hype zone, 3rd up was Hazelburn 12yr, a triple-distilled Springbank aged in fresh Oloroso sherry, bottled Nov. 2022 at 49.9%. After a market entry price of £75, a bottle now retails from £180 to 250 retail, or you might be able to grab one at auction for £150. We liked this sherry-filled dram but we thought the Hazelburn 15 offered a better sherry/funk combo.
We stopped accelerating into the hype zone and entered an entirely different universe with ‘Baldrick’s Cosmic Tardis’ a lightly-Peated SMWS Glen Scotia 10yr bourbon (58.4%) described by SMWS as:
“Strap yourself in! Blue cheese yoghurt comes first, then long-aged lambic ales, fermenting lemons, goat cheese smoothies, pickled onion monster munch and a couple of muddy sheep doused in malt vinegar. Assorted “farmyard aromas”! Cask matured olive oil, smoked cheese, mutton, sautéed liver and onions. Weird as hell but strangely brilliant. Water offers no quarters. Unintentionally clotted cream, ‘toss a coin’ slightly out of date milk, roadkill stroganoff, sour bubblegum, ‘highland fridge smell’, dog jackets, forgotten turnip, swimming pool plasters, mercurochrome and rotten tree stumps doused with antiseptic soup. The mouth is thrillingly salty, feta cheese curds, peated lemon juice, ash, smoked mint, herb-infused bacon, dead mice in pitta bread, white pepper on jellied eels. Then a coal scuttle full of cow stable straw. Water offers cumin schnapps, vapour rub eau de vie, Marmite ale, sardine oil and a liquified fisherman’s welly. But don’t let us put you off!”
As expected and apt with a tasting description that includes Marmite, it split the room but Jim was a fan:
“The smws was one of most intriguing drams we’ve ever had… a few attendees loved its funky cheesy madness but there were others who really didn’t like it. For me it was dram of night!”
THE actual dram of the night was a Springbank Local Barley 2024 (13yo 54.1% – 60% Bourbon, 40.0% Sherry) which was launched to the market at RRP £105, but less that a year later, is now in one well-known retailer for £1,000 a bottle (!).
Our recommendation – if you like it – is to head to the auction sites where you will probably be able to pick up a bottle for £200-£250.
As club member Nat was sharp enough to point out, this was different to the 11yr old Local Barley which we served in ‘TikTok vs FlipFlop’ and this highlights the variation created by the production method used by Springbank:
“Made from barley grown in or around Campbeltown. Each year a local farmer is commissioned to grow barley on our behalf to continue producing this ‘grain to glass’ limited edition. Different farms, barley varieties, cask maturations and length of time the whisky spends in the casks from one batch to the next allow our customers a unique tasting experience every time.”
Our last dram was a Kilkerran 8yo Sherry Cask (Batch 10, 2024, £55, 57.4%). We liked the salinity but had fonder memories of their heavily peated.
Overall, an interesting and engaging trip through the ‘Campbeltown Funk’ and attendees enjoyed the variety of drams we showcased.