Scapa ‘The Orcadian’ 16 year old

We now start a run of 5 reviews taking us back to the heady days of 'lockdown' whisky tastings. 2019 saw the launch of Belfast Whiskey Week which predominantly was held in and around The Duke of York Bar in Belfast with the idea that considering Belfast's rich whiskey history it was time to celebrate that history with a week of whiskey related shenanigans.

After a successful first year plans were in place for 2020 to be even bigger until that magical word entered our lives....Covid. In person tasting's were shelved and somehow the entire thing pivoted to online. Sample boxes were designed, produced and filled with liquid gold. The running order of the tastings was finalized, the event advertised and those special boxes were shipped literally worldwide. Some though were hand delivered by yours truly to the lovely folk of the Causeway Coast and I was even fortunate enough to host a few of the tastings.

Fast forward to 2021 and things were still online and a new colour scheme was produced and the festival featured even more tastings than 2020. I'm only now getting round to posting my notes from some of the boxes.

The whiskies for the next 5 reviews will come from the Irish v Scottish 12 year old plus box and I have to say it included some interesting drams.

First up was the Scapa 16 year old. Now I've tried a couple of Scapa's and truth be told I wasn't overly impressed. However, I'd heard many good things about the long since departed 16 year old expression....which has now been reintroduced to the Scapa line up as of 2025 I believe.

Scapa ‘The Orcadian’ 16 year old 40% abv

BWW Irish v Scottish 12 year plus

First fill bourbon maturation

Nose: I must say this is a lovely, lovely nose. Sea spray mixed with heather honey, vanilla, sugar coated danish all butter cookies. Plenty of biscuity malt. Lime marmalade and damp driftwood.

Palate: Rather thin mouthfeel which isn’t unexpected for the mouthfeel. Not anywhere near the sweetness the nose suggested. Salome vanilla and honey upfront mixed with salt water. Biscuity malt again alongside cask char, toasted hazelnuts and a delicate wisp of peat smoke.

Finish: Quite short with peppery heat and lingering light peat.

Score: 5 out of 10

Overall: A fairly average dram truth be told. Better than the Skiren thankfully but it certainly didn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it.

If you’d like to support my site and continued whiskey exploration there’s a ‘buy me a coffee’ link on the homepage menu bar. Thanks for reading and please check out my YouTube Channel too!