Scapa 16 Year Old

Scapa distillery is located at the head of Scapa bay, south-west of Kirkwall on the main island of the Orkney isles, and was established as a private company in 1885. Production was stopped between 1934 and 1936 after then owners Scapa Distillery Co. Ltd. had gone into liquidation, and the distillery was mothballed in 1994, although from 1997 on a team from Highland Park distillery came over each year to distill a little whisky. Full time production resumed in 2004 and in 2005 the distillery was acquired by Pernod Ricard. The 16-year old expression was first launched in 2008 when it replaced the former 14-year old bottling and has been Scapa’s standard expression ever since.

The nose is light and fruity with plenty of lemon flavours, followed by honey and oranges. There is also a quite intensely malty note, reminiscent of beer, and a touch of brine.

The palate is smooth and oily but also a bit thin. The orange flavours are back, together with notes of lemon and honey.

The finish is short but pleasantly warming. The orange flavours are there again, together with notes of caramel and a hint of brine at the very end.

This is a delicate and very drinkable single malt, without any rough edges. I was rather fond of the nose with its lovely interplay between fruity and briny (or “maritime”) flavours. The weak spot, in my view, is the palate that would greatly benefit from a higher ABV.

My thanks to @newreverie for the reviewed sample

Nose: sweet, with gentle malt, pleasant used wood aromas, very mild peat, and well-integrated brine. The malt smells nicely of a hybrid of cereal and grass flavours. This is mild and comforting, but sufficient in intensity to satisfy. Very good nose. Score: 22.5/25

Taste: tart citrus is added to the briny mix in the mouth. This is zippier on the delivery than is the nose, with the balance moved away from sweet and towards the tart-sour and brine. The 'island maritime' nature of this malt is revealed here in spades, with sourness present in the mouth which was not evident in the nose. Enjoyable, but not as harmonious as is the nose. Score: 21.5/25

Finish: medium-long, staying briny and sour. Score: 20.5/25

Balance: excellent balance in the nose, good balance thereafter. Score: 21/25

Water? I usually don't want to add water to 40% ABV whisky, but in this case, adding water: 1) muffled and bundled the flavours in the nose, emphasising the wood, and 2) did the same thing to the flavours in the mouth, while also bringing out some additional sweetness

Total Sequential Score: 85.5 points

Strength: very adequate strength of flavours, even at 40% ABV. Score: 22/25

Quality: the malt is appealing, the peat gently pleasantly understated, the brine and wood also taste good. Score: 22/25

Variety: very good in the nose, more narrow variety in the mouth. Score: 21.5/25

Harmony: lovely harmony in the nose, satisfactory harmony in the mouth. Score: 21/25

Total Non-Sequential Score: 86.5 points

Comment: I went for a lot of years without having ever tasted Scapa 16 yo. I had had one sample of Scapa 14 yo IB in the past which did not impress me, so I didn't push the matter. This sampling of Scapa 16 was more enjoyable than that 14 yo IB had been, but does very much confirm the overall mixed and somewhat tepid reviews that Scapa 16 gets. If you want a simple malt and brine whisky, then Scapa 16 delivers. In style this distillery seems to me closest to Pulteney, Oban, and Springbank

This scotch may always be overlooked and under-appreciated. I am not sure if it's rare or not, but it seems to be under-reviewed too...

If you see the bottle on the shelf, don't pass it up. This scotch is very pleasant and consistent no matter the receptacle. It needs only a small splash of water, but a little extra time to open up. So admire its golden-amber color and swirl it around a bit.

The nose is unique. I find it difficult to not swirl it around again for another whiff. The body is sweet and syrupy, almost like a bowl of fruit that's been tossed in simple syrup. Despite its lower alcohol content, this whisky has a very nice finish if you give it a chance to develop and pay attention. Let the Scapa 16yr intrigue your senses...

From tumbler, small splash of water, lots of time to breathe Overall-92

Nose-24: pewter, grape taffy, apples, wildflowers, honey, dry-grass

Palate-23: sugary fruit; peach, mango, pear, banana, bing cherry, marble... toffee, honey, crispy-shortbread-cookie

Finish-22: warm, prickly, mouthfeel with a taste of cherry wood at first... a wave of sea salt and seaweed roll through, and leaves behind sweet remnants of honey, oak, and potent floral notes

Balance-23: lots of character with smooth transitions from one flavor to the next.

I can't get over the impression of artificial grape when I nose this one, not bad artificial grape necessarily. It's like a grape lollipop, the kind with a loop stick, really sticky and tempting. There's also an impression of wax or fat, maybe pork fat. A creamy maltiness is also there, with honey and red fruit.

For taste, it is really a fine whisky and well worth delving over. In the mouth, it is lusciously sweet, like some kind of gooey candy. Grassy sweetness, honey, caramelized fruit, and a slight brininess wash over the tongue. This would be mind-blowing at cask strength.

Warm slow fruity arrival develops a smooth thick long evenly balanced fruity / vegetable / ashy finish.

Saved for moving into my first home I have been saving this for quite some time. Probably the first whisky I ever fell in love with and the true reason my obsession began.

Got it for £50 but that was with a discount for quite a thorough whisky tasting session in Cambridge. Not a bad price if you ask me. Though the guy told us that the distillery was closed and only reopened on weekends to release a small amount of bottles from its left over casks. Which since then I have realised was false information. No matter

Nose: Apples galore. Summer fruits, pears, apples and a whiff of peach. Very fruity this. No real punch of smoke. I can smell the Ocean, salt and a cool ocean breeze. Caramel becomes noticeable after around twenty minutes in the glass and strengthens with time. The longer its left the more apples that present themselves.

Palate: Again summer fruits shout at me. Apples, peaches and pears are the main components of this dram. Sea salt and flowers. Sunflowers come to mind, though Lilies and dandelions may also have a small part to play. 23

Finish: Gentle smoke on the finish as my tongue tingles. Long, warming and full of flavour. A finish I could find myself appreciating forever. 24

Was it worth the wait? Hell yes. I love this whisky, haven't tasted anything like it. In fact everyone who I've seen try it have enjoyed it both whisky novices and experts. Even my partner enjoys the stuff and that is really saying something! A dram everyone should try at least once. Quite hard to find in my experience but well worth the search.

If you want my humble opinion, this light, smooth dram is definitely best saved for those warm summer months and saving the sherry casks and peat monsters for the chilling embrace of winter. Try immediately after pouring ... and sip for the next half an hour to really appreciate the effect of time on this dram!!!!!

I think Scapa 16 is underrated. It is a nice craft-oriented dram that really hit the spot after I gave a lecture yesterday and needed a respite.

It does have a strange tincture mixed in with biscuit, short bread, toffee, autumn leaves on the forest loam after a loam, moss, and nougat--probably due to peat in the water used to make it(?), but I even enjoyed that somewhat odd flavor, as well, which I connote as "wet leaves/forest loam" and "moss." There is also a cinnamon note along with the loamy note in there, as well.

No, the Scapa is not "big" anything. It is an understated gentleman, and fills that niche quite handily, I must say.

This is not your typical whisky by a long shot. My wife also liked it, and that's saying something. She is not a whisky person, and prefers wine, and not all that much wine, actually.

The Scapa, is a single malt which has eluded me for a long time being a youthfull whisky amateur, although the location can wake the attention out of anyone who has a keen interest in military and especially naval history. The location in question is the Scapa flow, which is renowned for being the England's most important naval base during the course of the first&second World Wars. It is also notorious for having very violent streams, which is one of the main reasons why it was reputed for it's safety and thus chosen as a safehaven for the brittish naval fleet during those troublesome times. These reasons alongside the fact it is rather remote and isolated, being the islands of orkney.

Scapa distillery is, thus, the southern brother to the well famous Highland Park, Orkney's other distillery and most famous. This malt, having lived for some time under the shadow of it's more famous northern brother, is often overlooked, which is a shame.

Nose: The nose suggests meadow honey and even creamier honey, or honey mixed with cream? Also salt, salty seashores/ seabreeze. It soothes rather than racket your senses, a strong contradiction to the reputed strength of the Scapa flow. Some vanilla and complex malt accompany the ensemble.

Palate: More fo the same but bigger with one great addition for my part: The honey is, sure enough, the first to arrive but instead of going meadow honey and honey-cream it introduces the malt and salinty with a winning combo of sea-salted butter on fresh toast with meadow honey on top, this helps to crack the mystery of the understated creamy-honeyed nose.

The malt and honey takes over from the delicious salty-honey toast. They become even more complex with water as the honey note becomes more bitter towards manuka honey, and the malt shows of some grainy complexity alongside some added vanilla mixed with the honey.

The finnish makes a swift encore of the sweet/creamy honey this time riding on a malt&toffe bed finnish off with a honey-malt and a type of berry that seems familiar to me, as a northern swede, could it be cloudberry? Seems like it!

After many mixed, with some dreadfull, reviews (Jim Murray included) i must say that i don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure.. it is not the most complex and BIG whisky there is, but that wasn't what i was expecting anyway, what i found was a decent, complex and very satisfying alternative to the Dalwhinnie 15 as my favourite standard honey-malt. Maybe it is because, as a child in sweden, where salted butter is standard. I grew very fond of the salty butter with honey on toast in the morning. Some childhood delicatess's stay there while being knocked off by some more adult&mature acquired tastes. But some define your palate for life, and who you are, and that taste is one of those for me.

If this was bottled at higher strength, with more care in the presentation and a more composed/ longer finish this would be among my favourites. My dear Dad was the one who offered me to sample this, and he also happen to have a single cask from this distillery, makes me intrigued.

Decent whisky, unjustly treated in my opinion, i will knock a couple of marks of as i want to be pragmatic about my reviews and consider the fact that their is a flavour in this malt that is close to custom-made for me. It still remains an untapped little prize, that deserves it's time in the light soon enough.

After sampling and responding with my impressions, the bar maid got a hang of what I liked and did not like. I asked about this and she told me that I would not like it. I came back on another evening and ordered it anyway from a different bartender. My notes were that it was just too plain for my tastes and I won't order it again. I should have listened in the first place.

Hailing from the Northern Scotland Island of Orkney, it is usually compared up against the most successful distillery from that region, Highland Park. In fact, Scapa would be the northernmost distillery in all of Scotland, but HP has that distinction by only a few hundred yards! (Thanks Ralfy!)

The Scapa 16 replaces the old Scapa 14, and this one is a bit smoother (and arguably better). Another versatile dram from this island, the Scapa has the ability to combine some of the sweet Speyside flavors with the sea side notes that are normally attributed to the Islay malts.

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Amber -1

Nose: Floral, Vanilla, Seaweed and Honey, Citrus

Palate: Medium Bodied, more honey/caramel, Brine & Ocean, creamy nougat

Finish: Buttery spices, additional maltiness, drying

Overall:

One of the coolest parts of Scapa has more to do what they do not do. They do not use special cask finishes, and keep things incredibly straightforward. They age in 100% ex-bourbon first-fill casks (as vanilla as it gets…pun intended). They do not use their local peat to dry their barley. This is basically as simple and unadulterated as a malt can get, and they do it well. I would avoid water with this one. At only 40% ABV it is already as low as it can go, and I think it lost a bit of that fun saltwater-taffy vibe even with only a few drops of water. Just like when they create it, I prefer this one simple and straightforward…pair it with a glass.

Normally kept for post-dinner drams, my Scapa 16 was pulled out of the bar for an early evening taste. A good choice!

The Islander has quite a colorful nose - aromatic purple flowers like lavender sit in a fruit basket of papaya and apricots as citrus infused honey is drizzled quite liberally over the bouquet. All the while sitting next to a bowl of cereal and kneaded dough. A pleasant nose to awaken all your senses.

The medium bodied oily palate starts off white peppery spicy followed by the pleasant sweetness of honey and toffee.

A decent finish brings you rock melon and papaya. The papaya! It's so strong in this one.

All in all a very decent dram - something to be had quite regularly.

My wife recently bought me the coolest calender ever made for me for Christmas.

A whisky calender!

24 different samples bottled by Master of Malt, covering a variety of styles, ages, strengths and countries.

When I saw it in my email I knew THAT'S what I wanted for Christmas so I sent my wife that email as a very subtle hint to her and she, being insanely observant and deep picked up on that hint.

Each calender is different, containing different samples in each of them. The only constant in each of calenders was a 50 year old Speyside whisky that Master of Malt had bottled.

I'd gone through Islays, Highlands, Lowlands, and Irish whiskies so far in my calender and today I was going to be tasting an Island whisky.

Even cooler it was an Island distillery that I'd never tried before.

Scapa!

Now this is the second furthest North distillery in Scotland, being just half a mile South of Highland Park. Another one of my favorite distilleries!

This was the 16 year old, so not quite entry level considering that they also produce a 14 year old.

Relaxing as I cook dinner I crack open the sample bottle and pour it's contents into the glencairn.

First off let's nose!

First thing that comes through is honeyed toffee, then it goes salty with hints of peat and fruit.

It's a nice nose, nothing super special, but not bad and it does make me eager to take a taste.

Which is the very thing that I shall do!

Starts sweet then it jumps to sea salt covered bananas.

Lots of bananas. Actually salty bananas are the strongest flavors that come through on this whisky. It tastes good, but sadly it's boring.

Finish is of a nice length with more and more bananas coming through, with just a hint of salt at the end.

Not a bad little whisky, however while it's not bad, it's boring, non complex.

And odds are I'm going to guess that a bottle of this would normally run around $120 AUS which is way too much for a nice, but boring 16 yr old whisky.

If you get a chance to taste it, go for it. I don't think you'll be upset, but spending more then $60-$70 AUS and you're sadly paying too much.

As a regular visitor to Whisky Live festivals, you wouldn’t be surprised to know that this whisky was sampled at this years show, and it prompted me to buy a bottle to enjoy in my own time! Scapa is The Orcadian, product of the Orkney Islands, with a colour of light, golden yellow.

On the nose there is the hint of sea air, with a saltiness running through it. It’s light though, and has almost a medicinal tinge to it. To taste, the salty sea air is there but its not a heavy taste, it doesn’t put you off the dram at all. I also managed to get a soft smell of bananas, and those savoury snacks you seem to only ever see around Christmas.

It’s a tangy finish, lingering with that “day at the seaside” feel. To me, it’s a great little whisky, one that stood out on the day of sampling and still leaves me with a smile on my face after tasting. Easy to drink, and very enjoyable.

When I got a bottle of 16-year-old malt for Christmas, at first I was excited. But when I looked more closely at the bottle I was presented with, I couldn't subdue a hint of disappointment. It was a bottle distilled by Scapa, 'the Orcadian', but for me it might as well have been another namesake's designer polo shirt.

Hard feelings quickly disappeared when I tasted the malt in good company. It appeared to be a very smooth and sweet malt, but this might have been due to the good company I was in.

When I gave it a second try though, my appraisal of the whisky was quickly put in perspective. Although it was still as smooth, it had far less different tastes than I could remember from the party.