Review #860 - Glen Scotia 9 Year Campbeltown Malts Festival Release (2024)

In May 2026, we attended a tasting at our local specialty spirits retailer, Storied Company; this time, we were tasting a selection of single malts from Glen Scotia distillery. This Campbeltown distillery produces a wide range of whiskies, both age stated and NAS, and at a variety of strengths. For modern iterations of Glen Scotia, there's a strong focus on distillate character: they use a fermentation time of roughly 128 hours, far longer than the 50-ish hours required for a full conversion of sugar to alcohol in the whisky wash. That extra time adds lots of estery notes, especially flavors like light fruits. We tried 6 whiskies on the night - this is 1 of those 6.

The Campbeltown Malts Festival is one of the more recently established whisky festivals in Scotland - it started up in the past couple of decades, and currently celebrates the Campbeltown trio of Springbank, Glengyle, and Glen Scotia, along with independent bottler Cadenheads. Each year, these brands craft special releases for this festival - here's the 2024 edition of Glen Scotia's festival single malt, a 9 year whisky finished in Fino sherry casks.

This whisky spent the majority of its maturation in first fill ex-bourbon casks, but the final few months or year used those sherry casks for a fruity influence. Fino sherry is one of the drier varieties of this fortified wine, though, so we're not sure we'll be seeing the syrupy fruits that we sometimes get from Oloroso or PX sherry. The strength for this release in 2024 was 56.2% ABV.

Glen Scotia 9 Year Campbeltown Malts Festival Release (2024)

Scotland/Campbeltown - Single Malt

Price: USD 99 (2026)

Age Statement: 9 Years

Strength: 56.2% ABV

Cask Makeup: First fill ex-bourbon casks, finished in Fino sherry casks

Details: Not chill filtered; bottled 2024

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 1 time; tasted in a nosing glass, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Creamy and malty, with nice sweetness overall. Raisins and pears add a fruit dimension, and we get a touch of charcoal and sulphur, which add complexity. Time brings stronger buttery scents and vanilla notes.

Palate: Bright fruit like peaches and some tart nectarine, as well as a bit of sharp orange oil. The sulphur note from the sherry casks returns, and we get some starchy oak and a bit of peppery spice.

Finish: Light fruits like cantaloupe and subtle grape, even tannins from grape skins. The oak is soft but drying, and we get a white pepper kick and a bit of malty spirit. It's nice and tangy.

Final Note: This is a big, bright, fresh whisky which shows a decent amount of cask influence despite a finishing period which is supposedly relatively short. Lots of bright, tangy fruits combine with a bit of sulphur or wood smoke from the sherry casks; behind that sharpness, there's a nice sweetness and a bit of subtle malt. Good stuff, but it isn't quite old enough to have developed a huge amount of complexity.

We think the price here is quite fair. The fact that this bottle is still available 2 years after release means it was probably a very large batch that was produced; it isn't exactly rare, but it packs some interesting flavors, and we think it's a good purchase for Glen Scotia or Fino sherry fans.

Our Rating: 7.0 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 6.05

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.