I’ve sung the praises of the Springbank distillery so often that I am not going to bother doing it again. Suffice it to say that in an industry that for the last decade has been seeming to move further and further away from what’s in the bottle, Springbank (and their younger siblings at Glengyle/Kilkerran) have been keeping it real, making the whisky they’ve always been making. And one of those whiskies is the 12 yo, cask strength. I’ve had a number of batches of these over the years (and I’ve reviewed a few) and I do believe I’ve liked them all a lot. The formulation has changed over the years; there’s now more bourbon casks than sherry in the mix—indeed, if the Whiskybase entry can be trusted, this is composed from 65% ex-bourbon and 35% ex-sherry casks. The 18 yo and above and their single cask releases are all priced quite high—this is my only major complaint about them—but the 10 yo and the 15 yo are still relative bargains and at <$80 this will be too if it’s as good as previous batches. Let’s see.
Springbank 12 CS, Batch 19 (57.1%; from my own bottle)
Nose: All the Springbank goodness: peppery peat, coriander seed, leather, damp earth, sack cloth. Sweeter as it sits with a very mild rubbery note developing as well (it’s actually pleasant). Oh, water adds 10 years of age to it: all the same stuff but now more delicate, refined and nuanced.
Palate: Exactly as promised by the nose but with fruit emerging as I swallow. Nice texture and very approachable at full strength. More peat and pepper on the second sip and some lime as well. Saltier and more acidic with time (lime). With more time the salt and lime merge a la preserved lime. Water brightens it up with notes of wet limestone and more lime; more smoke now as well.
Finish: Long. Saltier as it goes. Water pushes the salt back and pulls out a bit of savoury gunpowder.
Comments: Not that I’ve had all of them—or even close—but, as I said, I cannot remember the last time I had a Springbank 12 CS that I did not like. This is one of the most dependable whiskies there is, even as the formulation has changed. Very drinkable neat but water kicks it up a level, especially on the nose. Highly recommended.
Rating: 88 points.
My Annoying Opinions 
Interestingly (well I think so, you may disagree) I’m not getting on too well with my bottle from this batch. I’d got my hands on an older batch some time ago (11 or 12 I think) and really enjoyed it, but am finding this bottle to have a distinct sulphur taint. I’m not one of those people who immediately give up on a whisky as soon as they get a hint of sulphur, but in this case it has severely reduced my enjoyment of the whisky as it feels I’m drinking a lovely whisky obscured by a fog of cabbage-y sulphur, and I’m left wondering what this bottle could have been.
You’re not getting anything like that MAO?
Makes me wonder how much within-batch variation there might be – maybe my bottle’s from the dregs of the vat or something like that…
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Hmmm I’m approaching the middle of my bottle and haven’t come across major sulphur beyond that slight rubbery note on the nose and the usual meaty Springbankness. Certainly no cabbage. I’ll look again. But in the meantime I liked it so much that I bought a second bottle.
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Are you in the US as well? I ask because I wonder if the vattings for the batches are the same for the US and UK/EU.
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Interesting thought! I am in the UK, but would have assumed the bottles to come from the same vatting due to the ABV being identical. Hmm, I will have to go back to my bottle for further exploration… Glad you’re enjoying it!
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I would have thought so too.
We need more people who’ve have this particular batch–in the UK/EU and the US to weigh in on the sulphur issue.
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Here is some baseless speculation: Springbank is a smaller and less corporate distillery; their 12yo releases come already in batches – so they are less pressed for consistency than your regular whisky house. I don’t know how big their vats are, but maybe just a dozen casks’ worth, rather than hundreds. So, even within a batch, we may see some variation, with one sulphurous cask affecting part but not the entire batch.
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That could well be. We need someone more familiar with Springbank’s operations to give us some insight.
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