MrWizard's Ramblings

This has been a long time coming… I’ve not been much for hopping onto hype train but Springbank distillery been intriguing me for a while. Campbeltown malt, lightly (or residually) peated with the price point that skyrocketed nearly in parallel to Japanese malt in the recent years. Lots of folks love it or speak fondly of it. Lets dig in!

Springbank Green 13 years 46%
This is… sure is (fresh) green alright. It’s full of umami, ashy, malty, and slightly smoky flavors. The peat is present, though not heavily. Balance between the flavors is razor-sharp, but the age betrays it by not giving it enough of woody sweetness beyond green apples, olives, malt, ash, smoke balance which could be attractive to those that like Islay style without heavy peat. This is savoury instead of sweet. With time and air, it opens up a little into sherry and wood notes, though the influence is fairly light. Slightly metallic aftertaste due to overall savoury character of the bottle. Give it time to breathe and you’ll be rewarded. Its growing on me, but I wouldn’t want more than a taste of this very occasionally.
Score: B-

Springbank 18 years 46%
This is quite delicious. Clearly older malt is in play here. This one has most of the characteristics of bourbon barrels with a tad of sherry influence balanced well after 18 years in wood. Still slightly peated but at this point, the peat is more of a background smokiness than the dominant flavor. Rather not very sweet and those savory flavors are very much present. The age did allow wood to do its thing so there’s a notable vanilla note present with from wood that balances out and plays well with umami.
Score: B+

Springbank 19 years refill bourbon SiB 58.6%
This is a treat to myself. I rarely make a note of the drink color, but this particular bottle happens to be very pale colored. This single barrel is everything I imagined a good Springbank to be. Its deep and full of flavor. Its balanced to perfection. Its woody with peat fully transmuted into complex smoky flavors instead from being a ‘burning swamp’. Small downsides of this bottling are of course refill-(refill-refill) bourbon cask so it’s basically old malt profile with a notable Springbank light smoke overlay on it. By its nature, the distillery malt does not seem to be sweet, though just like the 18 year old above, age and wood do wonders by adding sweet vanilla oaked notes. I wish this was a 2nd fill sherry but then it’d probably be twice or 10 times the price and I’d love it all the way to the bank.
Score: A-

I’m starting to see why older Springbank bottle prices spiral into stratosphere… While younger ones are no slouches… the flavor balance gets progressively better past 18 years old, once wood imparts its sweetness. I’ve been looking forward to trying bottles from this distillery and I’m glad I did as they’re really tasty and interesting. That being said, the combination of somewhat peated, non-sweet profile and high price makes it not a very attractive casual pour for me, so I’ll certainly partake it in when opportunity knocks somewhere else, but won’t be spending my money on Springbank bottles :).

Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown