SPRINGBANK 12YO CASK STRENGTH - DISTILLERY BOTTLING

Ahh, that little manual labour distillery down to the south west on the Kintyre Peninsula... The Springbank Distillery has an almost fanatic crowd of followers, much like Ardbeg on Islay, but you don't see the Springbank make alot of fuzz about themselves. They pride themselves in being a little excentric and just concentrate on making whisky, including still doing the traditional floor maltings...

Traditional, though empty, floor maltings at Springbank Distillery, May 10th 2011 © The Malt Desk

When I reviewed some BenRiachs a short while ago, I mentioned finishes... you either love or hate them, but as I also mentioned Springbank does more than that - they rarely just 'finish' they almost double mature instead to give a better spirit/cask finish integration... oh, and they also full mature in cask types, usually just used for finishing - like port casks.

But its not cask finishes that Springbank has built its reputation on... it bourbon and sherry cask matured whisky and their core range still consists of such.

One of those releases is the 12yo Cask Strength that has now seen its 6th batch and consists of up to 60% first fill sherry hogsheads. Let's try it...

Springbank 12yo Cask Strength batch 2, 58,5%, Distillery bottling

Colour is light amber

Nose:
Unmistakingly Springbank, oily (diesel even), light peat, honey and warm brown sugar, briny and leathery, sweet malt and sugared wort and nutmeg

Taste:
Very mouthfilling, again with the dirty oil feel, toffee, dried fruits, nutty, some vanilla, earthy, tobacco, fairly peated on the finish with some spicy oak too

A very good dram from Campbeltown indeed!

87/100!