Scapa

Located on the shore of Scapa Flow in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, Scapa was founded in 1885. The distillery was in continuous production for most of the 20th century. Briefly closed from 1994, it was relaunched in 2004 by owner Chivas Brothers as a producer of prestige single malt.

Historically the distillery’s principal function has been to provide malts for use in blends (to this day it forms an important part of Ballantine’s whisky blends), however its own single malt bottlings have earned an excellent reputation among whisky enthusiasts. In contrast to its fellow Orkney distillery Highland Park, Scapa typically produces an un-peated style of single malt which is matured exclusively in ex-Bourbon casks. This cask ageing provides Scapa malt with its signature sweet, vanilla-inflected flavour.

The core whisky of Scapa is the 16-year-old, which was launched in 2008 to replace a short-lived 12-year-old bottling. Scapa Skiren was added in 2015 and the gently peated Scapa Glansa was launched a year later. In addition, a number of independent bottlings of Scapa single malt, in particular by Gordon & Macphail, are in circulation and much sought-after by collectors.