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Scarabus Islay Single Malt

Scarabus Islay Single Malt

$69.99

The Scarabus was featured on Day 8 of our 2021 KWM Whisky Calendar

Scarabus is a new single malt from Hunter Laing, the owners of the new Ardnahoe Distillery. The whisky is sourced from an undisclosed Islay distillery, as it will be years until Ardnahoe's whisky comes of age. Launched in May on Islay at Feis Isle 2019. The name of the whisky can be traced back to the 13th century, and means "A rocky place" in Norse. Bottled at 46% without colouring or chill-filtering. Tastes like peated Bunnahabhain. 

 

700ml ml

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Region:Scotland > Islay
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Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: malty with leather and dried dark fruits; earthy, a touch rubbery, reminiscent of some Jamaican rums; ashy peat, and salty maritime smoke; juicy orange and Winegums.

Palate: ashy, tarry and earthy with more chewy malt; juicy orange and more Winegums; spicy with building muddy peat and fennel; still leathery with a touch of dried fruits; leather and tobacco.

Finish: long, tarry and spicy with more malt, citrus and wine gums; late leather and tobacco. 

Comment: not mind-blowingly complex, but it is young and feisty , and it does the trick; likely from the northeastern most corner of Islay, rather than near the port... 

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Salt and pepper battered seafood at a Chinese food restaurant, freshly fulled apart grapefruit or pomelo, oatmeal with apples sliced in, bacon cooking in a cast-iron frying pan, a slight touch of elderflower, and dried seaweed snacks.

Palate: Wonderful combination of creamy and ashy on the tongue with notes of salt and vinegar potato chips, sweet grilled scallops and prawns, Apple Jacks cereal, grapefruit pith, and a lemon ginger tea with honey.

Finish: Peat and sweet mingle nicely with the mouth-watering salt and pepper notes.

Comment: If you are a fan of peat this shows remarkable balance. While having bolt salt and peat notes it still manages to show a delicate side as well.

 

Originally written by Evan for a blog post relating to KWM's 2020 Whisky Calendar.

Bunnahabhain Distillery is the northernmost distillery on Islay – it lays off the beaten path and is somewhat remote even when compared to the rest of the island. The distillery was actually only reachable by boat until the 1960s, when a road was finally built to it. Bunnahabhain is one of a trio of Scottish Single Malt Distilleries owned by Burn Stewart (Distell Group).

Burn Stewart and its parent company also own Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull which we discussed on both on Day Four and Day Seventeen. and Deanston Distillery which resides on the Scottish mainland in Perthshire. Like its siblings, most of the flagship single malts Bunnahabhain range are bottled unchill-filtered and with no added colouring at the curious but commendable strength of 46.3% ABV.

Like many Scottish distilleries, Bunnahabhain is a Gaelic name. It translates to "the foot of the river".

This Islay distillery was founded in 1881 and started its life making the heavily peated whisky that the region is famous for. For most of its history its whisky was exclusively used in blends such as Black Bottle, and even today only a fraction of its production is bottled as a single malt. In 1963 production was increased and at the same time the distillery’s style was changed to the lighter, unpeated single malt whisky it is known for today. Since 1997 there have been small amounts of heavily peated (35 PPM malt spec) single malt made each year but it is not what the distillery is known for. 

The core of Bunnahabhain’s production and lineup doesn’t show very noticeable peat if it shows at all as they use a malt spec with a maximum phenolic level of 2 PPM. This makes it one of the more gently peated Islay single malts available. The distillery and its whisky are sometimes referred to as the ‘Gentle Giant of Islay’ What it lacks in smoke and peat it typically makes up for in nuanced and complex character and plenty of sherry cask influence, at least in official bottlings. 

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