Category Archives: Springbank

Springbank 12, 2000, Calvados Wood

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Springbank 12, 2000, Calvados Wood
Well, the last time I said my nose was back to normal I woke up the next day with it clogged again…but it has been two days in a row now that I have been able to taste and smell absolutely normally, and so here I am with a review of Springbank’s Calvados Wood release from a few years ago. As with many of Springbank’s Wood expressions (see also their Bourbon/Madeira cask, for example) this is genuinely double-matured and nothing like the finishes that bedevil so much of the rest of the industry. Indeed, this one spent 6 years in refill bourbon casks and then 6 years in fresh calvados casks.

I have a bottle of this myself but haven’t opened it yet—I’d wanted to get a better sense of calvados before doing so. Now I’m not suggesting that I have become a calvados expert in the interim but I have had more calvados in the last few months than I’d ever had before, and as luck would have it, Michael K. offered me a sample of the Springbank, allowing me to keep the bottle closed a little while longer as well. Well, let’s see what my minimal calvados experience brings to my experience of this whisky.  Continue reading →

Springbank 16, 1997, Bourbon/Madeira

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Springbank 16, 1997, Bourbon/Madeira
This is the Springbank whose existence Ol’ Jas denied over Easter weekend. Springbank has released a few madeira casks in the past. I’ve previously reviewed a 14 yo single cask that was a K&L exclusive. I liked it but not as much as the old 11 yo (which I have not reviewed yet on account of a reluctance to open my last bottle). Both of those and this one are from 1997 but obviously not from the same set of casks: those were full-term matured in madeira casks whereas this one was matured for the first 10 years in refill bourbon casks and then for the last six years in fresh madeira casks. So, obviously it’s not a finish either; more like true double maturation. Springbank seem to be the only distillery that does this kind of double maturation as a matter of course (they’re also probably the only distillery that doesn’t make a lot of silly noise about these kinds of releases). And probably because they do double maturation and not quick finishes their wine cask releases tend to be really well integrated with the usual distillery profile.    Continue reading →

Springbank 1998-2014, Rum Cask (Malts of Scotland)

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Springbank 16, 1997, Rum Cask, Malts of Scotland
After Monday’s rum cask finished bourbon (a Heaven Hill 14, 2001), which was more than a little reminiscent of a single malt, it was hard not to reach immediately for the one rum cask single malt I had easily at hand. Springbank has released a few official rum casks before but I haven’t seen too many around of late. This one is also from the German indie, Malts of Scotland but, unlike their Heaven Hill, appears to be matured full-term in a rum cask. Or at least, so I think. Let’s get right to it.

Springbank 1998-2014, Rum Cask (49.8%; Malts of Scotland cask 14037; from a purchased sample)

Nose: A slightly sweeter version of the regulation ex-bourbon Springbank profile. Which is to say that the usual machine oil, sackcloth, leather and salt/brine are all there but there’s an extra layer of simple syrup over it all. Gets pretty salty pretty fast; some preserved lemon as well. With water it’s less sweet and also less salty.  Continue reading →

Longrow 18, 2008 Release

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Longrow 18, 2008 Release
I’ve previously reviewed a Longrow 18 released in 2011. This one, released in 2008, was the first of the Longrow 18s, and along with the Longrow CV, which was also first released in 2008, filled out the range of Springbank’s double-distilled, heavily-peated malt (the 10 yo and 14 yo had already been released in prior years). It was very well received on release; this is my first time drinking it and I’m very interested to see what its like.

Longrow 18, 2008 Release (46%; from a purchased sample)

Nose: Lemon and minerally, ashy peat. Other fruit as well below the lemon: makrut lime peel, some kiwi, some grapefruit and also some tart-sweet apple. Quite a bit of salt too along with expanding iodine and olive brine. The classic Springbank leathery/wet sackcloth note is here too. Just lovely. Gets sweeter as it sits with some vanilla popping out as well to join the ever more fragrant citrus. With a lot more time there’s an almondy note as well. Let’s see if water bring out anything new. Well, if anything it seems to intensify that nutty note.   Continue reading →

Springbank 14, 1998, Fino Cask 265

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Springbank 14, 1998, Fino Cask
Here is the companion whisky to Monday’s bourbon barrel Springbank 14. This has been promised for a long time and occasional commenter, Ol’ Jas can now die happy as all his dreams have come true.

In 2008’ish Springbank released a series of 12 yo’s from different types of sherry casks. These were all distilled in 1996. If memory serves the cask types were fino, oloroso, cream sherry and an amontillado. I’ve reviewed that oloroso cask on the blog; I still haven’t opened my bottle of the fino from that series; I finished my bottle of the cream sherry before I started the blog but I think I have a reference sample stashed somewhere—I never did taste/corral the amontillado. A few years later they released this 14 yo series in the same vein, with a manzanilla cask taking the place of the cream sherry. Once upon a time I was supposed to split the other bottles in the series with some other whisky geeks but I guess that fell through. So this fino cask will probably be it for me from this series: the 16 yo casks that followed this lot cost almost twice as much as these did so please do not expect to see those reviewed here.  Continue reading →

Springbank 14, 1998 (Whiskybroker)

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Springbank 14, 1998, Whiskybroker
There’s not a whole lot of indie Springbank around and most of it tends to be expensive. And so when this release from Whiskybroker popped up a couple of years ago I jumped on it: Whiskybroker are known for their very fair, bordering on low prices. I opened it earlier this year at one of my local group’s tastings. This was somewhat different from our usual tastings as we drank two Springbanks of the same age but from different cask types, followed by two Laphroaigs of the same age but from different cask types. I’ve already reviewed the two Laphroaigs (here and here) and now I’m finally getting around to the Springbanks (Ol’ Jas, rejoice!). I was surprised at the tasting by the peaty character of this cask. I’m guessing this was distillate earmarked for release as Longrow—I think I’ve read in a couple of places that Springbank don’t allow indie releases under the Longrow and Hazelburn names (please correct or confirm if you know more). Anyway, let’s get to it.
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Longrow 14, Burgundy Wood

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longrow14-burgundy
This is another of Springbank’s double matured wine cask releases, albeit for their Longrow line of peated malts.I’m usually a little wary of red wine finished whiskies but, as is usually the case at Springbank, this is closer to a double matured whisky: it was distilled in 1997 and spent eleven years in refill bourbon casks and then a further three years in fresh Burgundy casks. That and the fact that Springbank’s distillate is by its nature robust emboldened me to purchase it after release. I opened this bottle quite some time ago for one of my local group’s tastings and my notes say I liked aspects of it but found it a bit clouded by sulphurous notes. Since then it’s sort of got lost in a corner of my whisky lair and despite having planned to review it a long time ago (hence the picture taken in a different season) I’ve never actually gotten around to it. Well, here I am now and I hope those sulphurous notes have abated a bit, as sometimes happens.

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Springbank 13, 2000 (SMWSA)

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Springbank 13, 2000
I’m not a member of the Single Malt Whisky Society. I can never quite convince myself that the membership price and cost of annual renewal is worth it—especially in the U.S where the society does not have tasting rooms where members can sample the whiskies before purchasing them. And while they put out a very broad range of whiskies it’s not as though the prices are reasonable either. Even rather young whiskies cost >$100 at the SMWS—though the prices do get more reasonable as the whiskies get older. You might say that this is true in general for independent bottlers but the floor at the SMWS is higher. And given how few reviews ever seem to emerge of these whiskies it’s not clear if the quality justifies the high prices. And, of course, you’ll find people in the UK lamenting a decline of quality control at the SMWS there, and others who’ll say that the US does not get the pick of the casks (which is not unlikely given our less mature market (compared to the UK and Europe).  Continue reading →

Springbank 1999-2013, Port Cask 246

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Springbank 1999-2012, Fresh Port Cask
My (possibly anomalous) experience with the Benromach Origins 2, Port Cask didn’t go so well. Let’s see if this Springbank can reverse my port cask trajectory.

As I’ve noted before, Springbank actually do a lot of wine and other exotic cask maturations (they even put out a calvados cask recently) but don’t really catch the same guff for this as distilleries such as Glenmorangie or Bruichladdich do (or did in the past). Some of this is doubtless due to the fact that Springbank doesn’t make a huge to-do out of everything they do and they don’t come up with silly Gaelic names for their whiskies or snazzy branding for each new release (in place usually of an age statement); instead they put them out in the same relaxed manner they put out all their whiskies—as a result, probably, even when people are disappointed they don’t feel like they’ve been sold a dubious bill of goods. But it’s also probably because, unlike most distilleries playing around with wine casks etc., Springbank don’t really do finishes per se: most of their wine cask malts are either full-term matured or matured for a secondary term of at least three years or so. As a result the “distillery character” is almost always front and center. Continue reading →

Springbank 12, Claret Wood

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Springbank 12, Claret Wood
Here is the review of the Springbank 12, Claret Wood that was promised to Ol’ Jas long ago. I hope he’s happy.

This is from a long deceased bottle (the 4 ounce sample was saved when the bottle was above the halfway mark). This is from a series of “wood expressions” Springbank released in the late 2000s. Others in the series included whiskies from Madeira, Gaja Barolo and Marsala casks as well as a series of 12 year olds from various types of sherry casks. Some of these were full-term matured in the relevant casks; others were matured for an initial, longer period in bourbon casks and then transferred to the cask on the label for a few more years. This Claret Wood was of the latter type, spending nine years first in bourbon and the last three in the wine casks.

This approach, which Springbank has continued with its more recent “exotic” cask releases (such as the calvados wood), seems closer to me to double maturation than to what usually gets described as “finished” whisky. Certainly, all of Springbank’s releases in this vein that I’ve tried have seemed to me to be very well integrated and far from “winesky”. That is my memory of this one as well but it’s been a while since I last tasted it. Continue reading →

Springbank 12 CS, Batch 7

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Springbank 12 CS, Batch 7

Let us stick with the cask strength whisky but move south from the Speyside, all the way to Campbeltown: yes, it’s the Springbank 12 CS, the seventh release to be exact. This is a mix of first-fill and refill sherry casks (I’m not sure of the proportion). I’ve had some of the earlier batches, with the first batch (at 54.6%) my favourite. Again, that bottle was finished long before the blog and so I have no notes on it.

Despite the fact that they bottle  a lot of sherried whisky Springbank doesn’t always come up when people ask for recommendations of sherried whiskies. This is partly because their more intensely sherried whiskies are quite expensive (see the 18 yo and the absurdly priced 21 yo) and partly because the more affordable ones emphasize the quintessential distillery character (brine, leather) over sherry for sherry’s sake. That has been my experience at any rate. Let’s see if this one supports that claim.

Continue reading →

Springbank 21, 2013 Release

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Springbank 21
I am a huge fan of Springbank’s whisky and the understated manner in which they sell it. I’m far less of a fan of the steadily increasing price we have to pay for this whisky in the US. Their importer in the past, Preiss Imports, took a lot of stick from whisky geeks for this. But, as I’ve noted before, it is apparently the case that, unlike many companies, Springbank do not discount their whisky for the US market in order to account for the three-tier markup (importer, distributor, retailer) and so their prices begin with a higher baseline. The truth of this seems to have been confirmed when the importer in the US changed recently and prices went even higher!

The Springbank 21, at least, costs a lot pretty much everywhere (as per Whiskybase, only 1680 bottles were released, which makes it genuinely limited). I can’t afford a full bottle–$400 for a 21 yo at 46% would be a stretch for me even if I were to ever pay $400 for a whisky. Luckily, I was able to buy some samples from the good lads of Whiskybase. Let’s get right to it. Continue reading →

Springbank 12, 1996, Oloroso Cask

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Springbank 12, 1996, Oloroso
This is from the series of 12 yo single sherry casks Springbank released some years ago. In addition to this oloroso, there was a fino, a cream sherry and an amontillado cask. I went through a bottle of the cream sherry and have an unopened bottle of the fino. This series, which took a while to sell out, was followed by a series of 14 yo single sherry casks, which sold for more or less the same price ($100 or just below). This series has recently been supplanted by a yet older series which is considerably more expensive (north of $150). So once I get through my samples and closed bottles of the 12 and 14 yo’s I’ll be done with reviewing Springbank’s single sherry casks for a long while. Who would have ever believed in the days when Preiss Imports was bringing Springbank to the US that another importer could make them even more expensive?

Continue reading →

Longrow: “CV” and “Peated”

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Longrow CVThe “CV” was the NAS entry-level Longrow (Springbank’s peated line) until recently when it was discontinued in favour of the new “Peated”. The CV was much beloved and there was the requisite gnashing of teeth at the news. It is not very clear to me though if more than the name has changed (I am clear though that I have not bothered to check–if you know one way or the other, please write in). It’s entirely possible that in a market where peat is king, Springbank felt the need to more clearly signal to the masses that they make a heavily peated whisky (after all, all Longrow is peated, so that description is not particularly unique to this release). Then again there may actually be a difference. Luckily, the price is not very different.

At any rate, I had saved a large’ish reference sample from my last bottle of the CV and having recently acquired a sample of the Peated the time is right to taste them head-to-head and see if I can make out any differences worth remarking. I’ve since found (and purchased) an old bottle of the CV at the original price at a store in the area and so unless the Peated knocks my socks off I’m in no hurry to run out and get a bottle. Continue reading →

Hazelburn 8, Sauternes Cask

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Hazelburn 8, SauternesSo, here is another wine cask-matured whisky, this time from Springbank’s Hazelburn line. Springbank have a slightly different approach to wine casks than most distilleries: they either mature the spirit entirely in the wine casks (see the late, lamented 11 yo from Madeira wood), or in the case of secondary maturations, house the spirit for an appreciable period of time in the wine casks. To take only some recent examples, the Longrow Burgundy wood spent 3 years in Burgundy casks after 11 years in refill bourbon; the new Springbank Calvados wood spent 6 years in Calvados casks after as many in refill bourbon; and this Hazelburn also spent 3 years in sauternes casks after 5 years in refill bourbon. This extended second maturation seems different from the briefer wine “finishes” that most distilleries do and in all the Springbank releases I’ve tried I’ve not found the wine notes to be sitting on top of the whisky; and I think in general that the spirit produced for the Springbank and Longrow lines is robust enough to keep the wine in check (which is not something I generally find to be true of Glenmorangie, for example). But will this be true of the more delicate triple-distilled and unpeated Hazelburn spirit? Continue reading →

Springbank 11, 2000

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SpringbankI don’t know too much about this Springbank. As per my source it was bottled (officially, I believe) for a whisky club in Sweden. It’s from a bourbon cask, which is not as unusual these days from Springbank as it once was. (See here for a review of another official special bottling of a bourbon cask.)

Springbank 11, 2000 (53.2%; bourbon hogshead #108 for Whiskyklubben Promillenium, Sweden; from a sample received in a swap)

Nose: Vanilla and gentle, minerally peat. Some peppery olive oil too and a touch of brine. Gets a touch smokier with time, maybe. With water it gets sweeter and there’s more brine; something almondy too.
Continue reading →

Hazelburn 8, 56.5%

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Hazelburn
Hazelburn is the unpeated, triple distilled whisky made at the Springbank distillery in Campbeltown. There’s not that much Hazelburn out there in general release. There have been a few releases of an 8yo and a 12 yo, and more recently, the Hazelburn CV (not sure if this is ongoing or if it has been discontinued a la the Longrow CV). Other than that there have been some one-offs; for example, a recent 8yo double matured in bourbon and sauternes casks.

I’ve never been too moved to give Hazelburn a try because the prices seemed too high (especially for the 8 yo) and my preferences generally tend to run towards more robust profiles. However, when Binny’s included the Hazelburn 8 yo in a recent closeout sale I decided to give it a shot. Their site seemed to indicate that I’d be getting the second release of the 8 yo at 46% but what showed up was a cask strength bottling at 56.5%. There’s not too much information out there on this: Whiskybase indicates that it was a single bourbon cask release of 228 bottles for the US, but it doesn’t actually say this on the bottle.
Continue reading →