With the country on lockdown, many of Scotland's top whisky festivals have been forced to cancel including Spirit of Speyside and the Campbeltown Malts Festival.
Now, Glen Scotia Distillery has unveiled plans to offer its programme of Campbeltown Malts Festival events - which had been scheduled to run from 19-21 May - online for the first time instead.
From 18 May, the distillery’s website will host some of the unique elements of the popular event, including virtual distillery tours, a historical Campbeltown walking tour, video tastings for fans to follow, and even a dedicated festival playlist collated by the organisers of the Mull & Kintyre music festival.
Glen Scotia's most popular event, the now famous dunnage warehouse tasting will also be made available outside the distillery for the very first time.
Hosted by Master Distiller Iain McAlister, the theme for 2020 is The Casks of Campbeltown, and features whiskies matured in casks historically used in Campbeltown.
It will investigate why these casks were used and the influence they have on the modern Campbeltown style.
Only 200 dunnage tasting packs will be released in the UK ahead of the festival, with a further 1800 distributed worldwide, each containing five 25ml samples along with password access to a specially created tasting video hosted by Iain.
Priced at £55.99 (including postage), The Glen Scotia Dunnage Tasting Box will be available to order from Dram Team.
Iain McAlister will also lead an online video tasting of some of Glen Scotia’s core range, allowing audiences to discover the different flavours, aromas and distinctive characteristics of Glen Scotia Double Cask, Glen Scotia 15 Years Old and Glen Scotia Victoriana.
A third tasting experience will be hosted by renowned whisky expert Charles MacLean who will introduce the tasting of Glen Scotia’s 2020 Festival Edition, the Glen Scotia Limited Edition 14 Year Old Tawny Port Finish, which has been released this month.
Known as the whisky capital of the world during the Victorian era, Campbeltown was originally home to over 30 working distilleries. The fifth and smallest malt producing region, this year’s Campbeltown Malts Festival has been cancelled for the first time since it launched in 2009.
Explaining that though this means they can't welcome people in the traditional sense, Iain stated they can still celebrate the distillery's rich heritage by hosting them in spirit, he said: “Glen Scotia’s virtual Malts Festival will feature as much of the real thing as possible.
"Working with our partners, we have created an exciting programme of events, complete with a special Spotify music playlist, and exclusive tasting sessions.
"With this virtual experience, people can truly enjoy the sounds, sights and tastes of Campbeltown from the comfort of their own homes.”
