Scapa 15 YR. Gordon&Macphail Bottling Single Malt Scotch

The nose here shows a bright high toned character with aromas of tropical fruits, pineapple, honey, nectarine, and a bit of grain and spice notes. The palate does show its ample proof. With the addition of water, flavors of nectarine, pineapple, and just there honey notes. D&M Tasting Notes

Scapa has to be the distillery with the best view in Scotland, if not the world. It was founded in 1885 by John Townsend less than 100 feet from the shore of the Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Scapa was a bit late to the distilling game as Highland Park had been founded almost a century before. John Townsend was an owner of Macfarlane and Townsend blenders of Glasgow. With blends in the late 1880s being the White Claw of their day, Macfarlane & Townsend had the need for their own distillery source. The distillery and the blenders survived the Patterson Crisis of the late 1890s and all continued well until 1919 when a fire broke out at the distillery.

As luck and history would have it, the remainder of the British Great Fleet was anchored in the Scapa Flow. The sailors were able to form a human chain and with simple bucketful's at a time extinguish the fire. While the distillery did sustain damage it was rebuilt on the same site. The 20th century saw a series of owners and occasional closures and the unique installation of a Lomond still that ran both wash and spirits distillations through the 60s and 70s. (Invented in Canada this still allows for plates to be put in the neck of the still, thus changing the character of the resulting spirit between runs.) For our interests we will fast-forward to 1994 when production ceased. While the crew of Highland Park ran occasional distillation runs at Scapa to keep the still from disrepair, it wasn’t brought back to full time production until 2005. That same year Pernod Ricard took ownership of the distillery; it just so happens that this is the year of this bottle’s distillation. The whisky that comes from Scapa is quite unique versus most island malts. While there is peat in its water sources, the Lingro Burn and Orquil Springs, it is transported to the distillery in pipes to minimize its contact with the peat fields. Similarly the barley was not peated (though there are some new peated bottlings starting to come out ). Scapa was at one point in time known for its very long fermentation times at 120 hours, though since the reopening that has been moderated to a still long 70ish hours.

The setup at the distillery is quite simple as there are only two stills in operation. Scapa is the last distillery in Scotland to use a Lomond still for its wash still, though it now has a standard straight neck pot still in use for its distillations. With a total outlay of 1 million liters per year, the distillery is on the small side by modern standards. Ageing typically happens on site in used American Oak barrels, though that was not the case for this particular bottle.

The independent bottler Gordon & Macphail stands quite apart from the rest of the independent bottler corps. The firm got their start as a grocer in the Speyside region in 1895. The two founders were wise and lucky enough to take on John Urquhart as an apprentice in 1915 as he transformed their operation to one increasingly focused on whisky. John’s son George joined the firm in 1933 and commenced on a program of buying new make (unaged) spirit and then ageing under Gordon & Macphail’s control from start to finish. The Urquhart family has retained control of Gordon & Macphail through the decades and now the fourth generation has joined the family enterprise. We want to talk a bit about the purchase of new make spirit and the effect that it has at this moment in the Scotch world. This approach forms the backbone of what makes G&M so very different. Other independent bottlers compete on the spot market for casks from distilleries and blenders that find casks that do not fit their needs or preferred flavor profiles. In addition to being protected from the recent price increases, G&M has more tools at their disposal to change the flavor and style of the finished dram. Michael Kennel, D&M

Distilled 2005. Bottled: 2020  Batch: 20/070  57.0% ABV  Cask #482