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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 24: Boutique-y Soup Town Blend 24 Year

Posted on December 24, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's post on our very special Compass Box KWM 30th Anniversary Blend!

by Evan

Christmas Eve Proper is upon us! With only two drams left in the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar, I am starting to feel conflicting emotions. Part of me is relieved that I will be able to take a break from all this frantic and excessive blog posting. However, there is a piece of my soul that will immediately yearn for the days spent typing up these missives and pretending that my opinion on topics even tangentially related to whisky matter to anyone other than myself.

I am sure my wife also has mixed feelings about all of this. She will be happy that I will finally be doing less “work” at home and potentially be more present in conversations again (hah!). That feeling will probably be short-lived though, as she soon realizes that once again, she is stuck being the audience for every single pithy pun I blather and half-formed idea that spills from my mind.

I am getting ahead of myself, though, aren’t I? I do still have two more blog posts to bludgeon words on and inflict on anybody silly enough to read them. So: onto today’s whisky! Behind Door Number Twenty-Four in our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar, you will find a mini bottle of That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Malt #6 Batch 2 – 24 Year Old. That is a mouthful to both read and type, but what does it actually mean? It means we are headed to Soup Town – I mean Campbeltown!

Oh boy, am I excited for this bottle! I have tasted Batch 1 of this 24-year-old Blended Malt a few times, and in my opinion, it is darned good whisky. I am curious to see how this Batch 2 compares. Batch 1 is rustic. It also is tropical. But, it is sherried. And it is salty and coastal. It contains a cacophony of what should be jarringly opposing notes and styles, yet they remain harmonious in a way that Campbeltown distilleries seem to pull of better than pretty much any others in Scotland.

So, just what could be in this Blended Malt from a place fictitiously named Soup Town? Well, Soup Town is a reference that only That Boutique-y Whisky Company and their wit could come up with. Soup Town refers to Campbeltown. Campbell = Soup. Campbell’s Soup. Get it? Oh, and spoilers: Apparently the other part of the blend is likely from Loch Lomond. Check out the YouTube video of Andrew and Dave Worthington discussing the Soup Town Blended Malt for more info!

Campbeltown is currently the most bereft distillery region in Scotland, as it contains only three active distilleries: Springbank, Glengyle (bottled under the name Kilkerran), and Glen Scotia. This was not always the case. A little more than a century ago, there was a joke told about Campbeltown having more operating distilleries than churches. This was an impressive claim and funny joke because there were few dozen distilleries in the Wee Toon at its peak, and also because it was true.

What is even funnier is that some of the churches were apparently built by distillery owners in hopes of appeasing a vocal and growing temperance movement. It just goes to show: we may not tax churches, but they manage to take their toll on everyone and everything to some degree…

For a great read of the ups and downs of Soup Town, check out this article at whiskystories.com

Back to the present: there are currently a handful more distilleries in planning, so perhaps Campbeltown is slowly coming to a resurgence. That would be nice, considering the demand for the region’s whisky has exploded over the past decade.

That is what makes this whisky so interesting. A 24-Year-Old Blended Malt Scotch that is made from Campbeltown Whisky with a measure of something from the Highlands? Yes, please! Based on how expensive and how difficult it is to get any whisky from Springbank or Glengyle distillery currently, the assumption is that the main distillery in this Blend comes from Glen Scotia. That is just fine by me, because I have fallen in love with the Campbeltown distillery over the past few years. Same with Loch Lomond, which has been the source for many of my favourite whiskies over the past few Whisky Calendars, including the Loch Lomond 18-Year-Old we had way back in 2019 on Day 15 as well as this year's Boutique-y Inchfad from Day 20.

Buckle up folks, because this Boutique-y Blended Scotch could be a wild ride.

Boutique-y Blended Malt #6 - Batch 2 - 24 Year

Batch 1 is available in 500ml bottles here!

"Welcome to Soup Town" reads a sign on the label for this Boutique-y bottling. Could that be a Campbeltown reference? Could the whisky in the bottle be Glen Scotia blended with a "Highland" Distillery - perhaps Loch Lomond? Who knows?!? What we do know is that this is one dense and rich whisky! 48.8 %. Please note that both Batch 1 and Batch 2 contain the very same whisky. Batch 2 is just batch 1 rebottled into mini / 50ml bottles!

About the Label (Larger Label Under Tasting Note)

"Another delicious-y blended malt loop on our whisky belt. This bottling has been produced using a “teaspoon” of another expression from a top secret distillery that we absolutely cannot name. So here’s another interesting piece of artwork to throw you off course. As you can see, there’s a queue building along the lovely high street of Souptown. Heading for the The Bonny, Bonny Bank, the crowd pass Glen Coacher Taxis and Highlander Blooms Florist. The town also seems to host a major runway, with two US bombers inbound."

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: First, take a mandarin orange and mash it together with dried seaweed. Then, grind some pepper onto pineapple cubes. Garnish with leaves of mint and basil and serve on a rusted hubcap. Drizzle everything with maple syrup and a balsamic reduction.

Palate: Chewy, savoury sherry notes plus more maple syrup and balsamic, dates, raisins, dried mango, green apple skins, black forest cake with cherries, dark chocolate pudding, and the dregs of over-steeped Earl Grey Tea.

Finish: Dry and leathery with more dark chocolate, espresso, figs, and dates.

Comment: This old-school and leathery whisky with a dry and a touch bitter on the palate style may not be for everybody, but I personally enjoy it quite a bit. The dichotomy between the savoury and the tropical notes is something to behold!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for mass. See you tomorrow for one last special dram!

Cheers,
Evan
[email protected]
Twitter and Instagram: @sagelikefool

This entry was posted in Whisky, Whisky Calendars, Independent Bottler, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM Whisky Calendar 2022

 

 

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