Glen Scotia

Glen Scotia comes from Campbeltown, which is one of those whisky regions people become slightly evangelical about after a few drams. Once upon a time the town was packed with distilleries and known as the whisky capital of the world. Now only a handful remain, and Glen Scotia is one of the survivors stubbornly keeping the place going.

Founded in 1832, the distillery still feels wonderfully old-school. Low stone buildings, dunnage warehouses, creaking industrial history everywhere you look. It has avoided turning into some ultra-modern whisky theme park, which suits Campbeltown perfectly.

Style-wise, Glen Scotia sits in a lovely middle ground between maritime, fruity and lightly smoky. You’ll often find salted caramel, orchard fruit, vanilla, sea spray and gentle spice running through the whiskies, sometimes with a faint oily or coastal edge that Campbeltown fans absolutely obsess over. The peated releases tend to stay earthy and restrained rather than full bonfire-to-the-face Islay territory.

For years Glen Scotia felt slightly overlooked compared to some bigger Scotch names, but recently the distillery has hit a real run of form. Bottles like Victoriana and the older age statements have picked up serious praise, partly because they still feel rooted in traditional whisky-making rather than engineered for mass-market smoothness.

There’s also something very satisfying about drinking whisky from a place that still feels slightly remote and weather-beaten. Campbeltown sits right out on the Kintyre peninsula facing the Atlantic, and somehow the whisky tastes exactly like it should come from there.