Glen Scotia Campbeltown Festival 2025 Single Malt Scotch Whisky 70 cl 54.3%

Glen Scotia distils peated spirit for only a few weeks a year. The rest of the time the plant runs unpeated, so by the time the festival bottle appears the raw material is already a rarity at the distillery. The 2025 release added five months in Spanish red wine casks on top.

The expert's description

Glen Scotia Campbeltown Festival 2025 is a Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky matured in 1st fill bourbon casks with a finishing period in Ribera del Duero red wine casks, bottled at 54.3%.

The whisky is nine years old and built on the distillery peated spirit. Main maturation took place in 1st fill bourbon casks, and the final five months were spent in casks from Ribera del Duero in northern Spain — a region known for powerful tempranillo wines. The combination of peat smoke and dark wine fruit is unusual, and the bottling is a limited edition, non-chill filtered and with no added colour.

Campbeltown Malts Festival is held every spring, when the three distilleries in town open their doors and each releases a special bottling. It is the one time a year that Campbeltown fills up with whisky people, and the festival bottles are usually gone as fast as they arrive.

Tasting notes

Nose

Creamy vanilla and salty sea air, with peat smoke settling on top. Behind it come dark berries and a vinous, almost preserved note.

Palate

Full and oiled. Smoked malt meets juicy blackberries and ripe red fruit, with a trace of liquorice underneath. The cask strength holds the smoke and the wine fruit in tension against each other.

Finish

Long and soft. Well-integrated smoke, dark fruit and a spiced, almost luxurious close.

Specifications

Name: Glen Scotia Campbeltown Festival 2025 Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky 70 cl 54.3%
Distillery: Glen Scotia
Region/Country: Campbeltown, Scotland
Type: Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Age: 9 years
ABV: 54.3%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: 1st fill bourbon casks with five months in Ribera del Duero red wine casks
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Natural colour: Yes
Edition: Campbeltown Malts Festival 2025 - Limited Edition

Flavour profile

Peated · Maritime · Dark fruit · Wine-finished · Spiced

Investment potential

Medium. Festival bottlings are made in one run for one weekend and are not reissued. This one is also built on the distillery peated spirit, which is only produced a few weeks a year, and that combination of peat and Spanish red wine cask has not appeared before in the series.

Did you know?

The distillery was originally called simply Scotia. The Glen came later, and on old bottles and nineteenth-century documents the name still appears without it. It is a detail that can date an old label immediately.

See our full range of Glen Scotia

Listen to our podcast:

Frequently asked questions about Glen Scotia Campbeltown Festival 2025

What is the Campbeltown Malts Festival?

An annual whisky festival in Campbeltown where the distilleries in town open to visitors and each releases a special bottling. It falls in spring and has become a fixed point for people who follow the region closely.

Why does Glen Scotia only make peated spirit for a few weeks a year?

Because peated and unpeated malt cannot run at the same time without the smoke settling into the plant. The distillery therefore sets aside a short period for peated production and spends the rest of the year on the unpeated house style. That makes the peated bottlings a limited resource.

What do Ribera del Duero casks do to the whisky?

They add dark berries and a dry, tannic fruit. Ribera del Duero makes powerful red wines from tempranillo, and the casks carry that dark fruit over without the sweetness you get from port or sherry. Alongside the smoke it makes for a fairly unusual combination.

How peated is it?

Medium. There is clear peat smoke, but it is not in the Islay class, and the five months in wine casks have laid a layer of fruit on top that softens it. To compare with other smoky styles, browse our Scotch Whisky selection.

Should I add water at 54.3%?

Try it neat first — the smoke and wine fruit hold together best without water. A couple of drops can pull the blackberry forward, but go too far and the smoke separates from the fruit, and the whisky falls apart.

Can you still get festival editions from earlier years?

Only sporadically. Each vintage is made in one run for one weekend, and once it is gone it is not made again. That is why the older festival bottles now surface only one at a time.

Who is it interesting for?

For those who follow Campbeltown and want to see the distillery working outside the standard range. Nine years, peated spirit and Spanish red wine casks is not a combination found in the permanent line-up — that is the whole idea behind a festival bottling.