This bottle has arrived last week and I’ve tasted it once. It was good but I was waiting to be alone to taste it properly. This whisky can be quite prickly if you haven’t had anything before it, so beware: high abv and quite a bite ! The dram I had before this one was a Pikesville rye.

Cask makeup: 70% bourbon / 30% sherry

Abv: 57.2%

Price paid: ~ 105 €/$

Nose: marzipan, danish pastries, vanilla custard, ripe raspberries, salted caramel, earthy and leathery peat, pipe tobacco, Mara strawberries

Palate: viscous and strong alcohol kick, oily mouthfeel, cassis, peaches, pineapple,

Finish: wood and tobacco smoke altering with fruitiness. Leather. Mineral. Umami, sweet and just the right amount of bitterness. Then it becomes salty, the peat that was earthy and almost barnyard funk on the nose turns to a briny finish with a sooty dirtiness. Lovely.

Thoughts: That’s the most smoky Springbank I have ever tasted and that was quite the ride. The alcohol is quite strong but I didn’t want to dilute that huge oily texture. The balance between sherry and bourbon casks is perfect, the 30% sherry feels like awesome first fill sherry casks. It manages to be elegant, decadent, prickly and smooth, bitter and sweet, smoky and fruity. Awesome. At this stage of the bottle, I can’t say if it’s better than the batch from last year, but I think it is. If you love it smoky and powerful of course. And take your time with it.

It is a much more subtle, complex and more restrained whisky than any Kilkerran 8 for example, so try not to drink peated stuff before, but warm yourself up !

This is highly recommended at a fair price.

Sláinte ????