THEDAILYWHISKY

Glen Scotia Icons of Campbeltown Release No.4 takes the series in a sweeter, warmer direction: an unpeated 12-year-old single malt given a full year in Vin Santo casks, the Italian dessert wine made from dried white grapes.

Here are the key facts up front. This is a Campbeltown single malt, distillery-bottled at 53.8% ABV, which is batch strength rather than a reduced 46%. It spent 12 months finishing in Vin Santo casks, is unpeated, and is presented at natural colour and non-chill filtered. It sells for around £79 to £80 for a 70cl bottle, and it ships internationally.

What the Icons of Campbeltown series is

Icons of Campbeltown is a five-part limited series built around the Campbeltown market cross, the old stone monument at the heart of the town that carries carvings of saints and beasts. Each release borrows one of those figures. Release No.4 takes the griffin said to guard the harbour, brought to life on the label by artist Joel Holtzman. If you have followed the run so far, you will know the casks change with every entry, and this is the one that leans into dried fruit and dessert-wine sweetness rather than the sherry and red-wine profiles seen earlier in the series.

Why the Vin Santo cask matters

Vin Santo is the interesting part. It is a traditional Tuscan dessert wine, made by drying the grapes before pressing so the sugars concentrate, which is why the wine ends up rich, nutty and honeyed. Cask finishes in this style are far less common than sherry, port or bourbon, so a full 12 months in Vin Santo wood is a genuine point of difference. On an unpeated Glen Scotia, the idea is that the dried-grape sweetness meets the distillery’s coastal, slightly briny house character rather than fighting it.

Who makes it

Glen Scotia is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland and one of only a handful still working in Campbeltown, a region that once had more than thirty distilleries and remains a proud, distinct corner of the Scotch map. The distillery still runs much of its original nineteenth-century layout, including a dunnage warehouse dating from the 1830s, and it was named Distillery of the Year at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. That coastal, maritime signature is exactly what a dessert-wine finish is designed to play against.

Tasting notes (as published by the distillery and retailers)

We have not tasted Release No.4 ourselves yet, so these notes come from Glen Scotia and its retail partners rather than from a TDW review.

Nose: rich caramel, dried apricots in syrup, candied red apple 
Palate: baking spice, toasted hazelnuts, dried apple skins, cacao nibs, a subtle coastal note underneath 
Finish: zesty citrus peel, caramelised oak, crème brûlée 
ABV: 53.8% | Cask:ex-bourbon maturation with a 12-month Vin Santo finish | Age: 12 years | Size: 70cl

Price and where to buy

Expect to pay about £78.95 at The Whisky Exchange and £80.00 at The Whisky Shop, both for a 70cl bottle. Both retailers ship across Europe, to the US and to much of the rest of the world, so readers in Germany, the US and beyond can order directly. As a limited release in a numbered series, it is worth acting sooner rather than later if the Vin Santo angle appeals, since earlier entries in the series have sold through.

Is it worth a look?

This one is for the drinker who likes a cask-strength Campbeltown malt but wants the dessert-wine sweetness dialled up: dried fruit, spice and crème brûlée sitting on top of that coastal base. It is not the bottle to reach for if you came to Glen Scotia for smoke and brine alone, since this is unpeated and the emphasis is on sweetness and spice. At roughly £79 and 53.8%, it sits in the same bracket as the distillery’s Victoriana and the earlier Icons releases, and the unusual finish is the reason to pick it over a more conventional sherry or bourbon expression.