Scapa Skiren

The taste of Scotland itself.

It can be hard to confirm these things, but Scapa may be the smallest distillery in the Pernod Ricard portfolio. Seriously… this is a small batch shop with one single wash still and one single spirit still and a total annual capacity of about 1 million liters. That sounds like a lot, but to put things in perspective, Glenlivet does that much in a month.

Scapa Distillery is found on the coastal shores of the mainland of the Isle of Orkney, hence, it gets the nickname, “The Orcadian.” All the malt from Scapa is set aside to be released as single malt—every single drop—and that is pretty unusual these days. And fans will tell you that it has “proper peating,” meaning that the water from the distillery flows from a peat bog, but the malted grain is not dried over peat, so there is a hint of natural peat in the glass without the smoke. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a mighty fine line worth the try.

Scapa is famous for their core 16 YO dram. But just last year they introduced a new product, and that’s what we are hear to talk about today. The name Skiren comes from a Norse word meaning “glittering sky,” and this one earns the name.

The Scapa malt is famous for it’s natural honied character, and the blokes at Scapa don’t want anything to get in the way of that. So even thought they prefer the quality of American oak, they use first-fill casks so all that you taste is the malt and nothing else. And that special taste sparkles in the glass. This may sound odd, but this great northern Single malt tasted like Scotland itself. Like it should be.