Tastes

I feel like I'm getting generic lately with reviews. The problem...I feel like whisky is all starting to hit these same elements. This one won't change that. Nose - If you could take fresh cut hay, barely, and age lemons on oak, you'd have this nose 80% of the way. Sprinkle in sea salt and touches of smoke and you're there man. Ok some of that crystalized sugar, rich vanilla, and yes those dang springbank sugar cookies. I love the simplicity and the complexity here. It's just that simple as my notes but it's so rich and has layers. Taste - So lets start with the bad. This is reminding me of a hazelburn single cask 10 year that was half this price on the finish. It's less sweet and more sour/bitter than the batch 23 springbank 12 (also ex bourbon). The abv is too low and it isn't as creamy as it could be. The good. The barely and earthy notes play perfectly with the light peat and salty notes. The finish is explosive, rich and long lingering. You know what, lets compare it to the hazelburn. OK they aren't comparable lol. It's amazing how your memory will bring out the notes you like in a bottle like this hazelburn but when you compare it, they don't work. Hazelburn is buttery and creamy sweet while this springbank is earthy, bitter, salty, peaty, and just down right HARSH. Both have amazing finishes but the springbank is so much more earthy(in a good way) and more bitter. The hazelburn is by comparison a caramel bomb with a sour thing out of nowhere. Oh the more I try the hazelburn the more sour comes out, but again in a great way. But different than this. So what springbank did after what I considered a disaster for the local barely brand last year, was go back to the extreme basics. They took a very earthy and core idea of local barely and just said here you go, this is our raw in your face, tired cask bourbon expression. And I gotta say, the more I vs it against other whiskies the more impressed I am. This isn't a whisky that is amazing on the nose. It isn't about the 10k flavors you pull out. It's about the mouth feel, the experience, the insane number of flavors you get, and how you're just full saturated in this experience from start to finish. Every whisky I think to compare this to, just doesn't work. They're all something different. Ok scores...yuck, this isn't a whisky that you score. It's an experience you need to have. I've come to be a bit of a nicer grader perhaps lately but 3.5. I'm not sure this is better than the 11 year but I just had a sample of it. This is great all be it more about the experience than the joy of the taste if that makes any sense.

This is my surprise whisky of the year! Nose - Imagine freshly baked chocolate bread with just a bit of light sugar powder and cocoa powder dusted over it. Vanilla with light cereal grain meets just a sugar marmalade. Then you get these puffs or light red/blue wine just bringing in fruits to the party. This is decadent dessert in a glass. Taste - This is about as perfect a blending of irish malt and grain married in heavenly casks. Creamy mouth feel with huge white cinnamon spice, chocolate, even an even so hint of chille pepper sneaks in. Vanilla, vanilla, so much vanilla but not like bourbon but in that clean grain way. The finish won't even consider stopping. The spice and chocolate with almost a smokey oak barrel just won't go anywhere. Huge lingering amazingness. 4.25 This is a must buy!

2021 Release - this is night and day different from the 2016 I last reviewed. Nose - I rarely see gasoline peat, but this is gasoline peat! Sugar forward barely. Some cinnamon/toffee and candied cigarette sweetness. Taste - A really nice creamy mouth feel full of oddly right now laphroiag like peat vs longrow. Very earthy, but hinting on medicinal. That smokey cinnamon and toffee seems to dominate the malt vs the classic springbank sugar cookie. Drastically better than the 2016 longrow NAS but nothing world changing. I'll do 2.0. An average whisky for those of us who spend our days drinking quality malt.

Again, lazy....but this is Tree 4. Nose - Oak and sweet. This is classic jammy irish, pot still notes coming through, but that virgin oak is in full force. Taste - Well, there's no lack of oak and spice here. I don't normally do this, but I'm going straight to the water after a sip. Ok here we go. Apples, pears, honey, some light cereal grains, and a spicy bold finish. Man, this needed some water to open it up! Nose - part 2. Ok with water, lovely fruits and jams and honey. Imagine a vanilla pear butter on toast with honey drizzled on it. I'm even getting some fresh cut grass here now. Lovely just lovely. 3.75 A bit disappointed given how much I liked the last tree, but this is pretty fresh so it might improve. Either way wonderful whisky I can recommend but the price is a touch rough. FYI 700 ml here in the US

I didn't get lucky this year or maybe I just stopped being an idiot with my money, but regardless of the minimal stuff I had. This is my 2022 bourbon of the year so far. Let me tell you why. Nose - God you just know MGP when you smell it and I mean well aged MGP. 9 year old and it's just to dye for. That rye spice meeting leather, tobacco, and well aged vanilla. I love it. With this however and this rum cask finishing, there's something else. It's a touch funky a touch light and most importantly, playful. Sure some mint sneaks in here, some of that sugar cane from the rum, more fruity sour notes, just wonderful. Taste - Spice and oak with rock candy, with rum notes with this huge powerful rye and vanilla with charred burnt brown sugar. Wonderful! Some orange citrus vitamins with some light apples. Huge long finish, lovely yummy stuff. This amazing unique example of MGP, well aged, and brings these crazy amazing elements of smoke, oak, ash, candy, funk, spice, tobacco, vanilla...i can go on for days. I get toasted oak as well. Wow just wow. The more you drink this the better it is. The more you add water the more you find cool things. Sadly....this is one hell of a rare bottle. About 600 bottles made. It was aged in four square in case anyone was wondering, (four by four). Giving this an insane 4.0.

Shocked we don't have more reviews here. Ok lets see Nose - OK right off the bat, wonderful nose. Huge red fruits, rich sweetness, and the rye is starting to give me a mitchters barrel proof rye with those red fruits with some spice coming through. Then I get this rough oak element from cheap bourbon...I hate this bourbon note. This was the same crap bourbon they used I think with Old Sherry Pike. But god that's the ONLY flaw here. Very Christmas forward overall. But god that chestnut oak thing. Ok lets get into the taste. Taste - I'm now getting a bit of that Four Gate spicy stave thing they do, not my favorite note, but this works well. OK, so thank goodness the rich spicy rye is hiding the unruly bourbon. The port and the rye have really come into harmony and give off this mix of Christmas meets sweet port...I keep looking for sherry (not used) to give me chocolate? Then I get some caramel that seems to be bourbon driven. Overall - it's big, bold, full bodied, has what i like from some sherry, has off notes. Water makes the nose better, but brings out more of that just too young bourbon. Oh man, this is hard one to score. Great overall experience. As flaws. As some youth that hurts it. The rum is likely part of the rye notes I keep coming to but I don't know rum well enough to tell where the start and end. The port is pretty good but not over done. It's honestly a balanced whisky despite the extreme everything, rye and rum and port with bourbon....this shouldn't be so well blended. OK 3.25, maybe over rating it given the price but all good for me. Happy with this bottle. I wouldn't get a back up.

I've become a self confessed Craigellachie fan boy over the last 2-3 years. From some IB's to the exceptional casks all the way down to the 13 year, I've had a few off ones, but overall they've been wonderful! Nose - Musty grapes, touch of citrus oak, bit of light funk. There's a hint of oak smoke and a slight toast base. Taste - Ok, up front it's lovely sweetness, funky toasted heavy oak, funk and a white wine note. It's not doing me anything or any good here. But let me put my head back around this. This is coming off differently than when I last had this. Last time the funky oak note that the worm tubs can often give me an off putting finish. Now the finish is a weird, really weird white wine, certainly no armagnac I've had. Now the oaky/nutty thing is still here for sure. I love Craigellachie, I get a lot of great notes here. I hate the bas-armagnac impact here. I'll give it a 1.75, there's just way too many better bottles. But it's unique and there's a place for that.

Nice little "budget" 18 year old. Nose - A mix of some funk, oak, and citrus peat bog. Really interesting nose, I'm not sure what is going on here. It has an almost meaty umami thing mixing with apricot fruits and some smoke over wax. Taste - Citrus, tea, smoke, oak, and then this amazing rich smokey and charred oak finish. What a delightful and unexpected whisky given the low prices, I had ZERO expectations here. Really rich, vibrant, and yeah look...this has some competing notes. Is the citrus, smoke and funk all playing nicely? Nah...it's a bit disjointed. The mouth feel is great on the finish but it could be better up front. I can see where you'll get some weird notes, and this will likely not do well after certain food So yeah not a perfect whisky, but it's a dang fun and complex whisky. It's reasonably priced and I think I'd buy it again. 3.0

Another that the review is already out there but wanted to more in depth notes. Nose - I keep saying this about this one, but the fruity and oaky forward knob creek profile is unmistakable. It's amazing how well they've done at not just making this "Beam" but making it unmistakably a part of the Knob Creek lineup. Lemon/citrus jam meets rich oak, slightly dried oak, dried barn leaf tobacco, heavy caramel sweetness with minimal if any vanilla. Taste - More of the same. Rich oak, heavy spices, cinnamon, huge tobacco leaf, rich caramel, some french vanilla, lightly nutty, and more and more traditional heavy vanilla on the back end. I'll give this the same score of the 15, a 3.5. I'm feeling this is an over statement. 180 bucks is a bit too much, but it's fun, it's a bit different, and it's cool to see such an old age statement.

2021 bottling Bit behind on adding my personal notes here. This one is already reviewed on the channel. Nose - The nose is giving off some light butter scotch that hints of youth but not in an offensive way. This is giving me hints of lemon drops and pie custard. Taste - That lemon and buttery element carries over. Full discloser this is post SB 25 so I can already tell I'm getting some influence. Then you get some pucker sour notes on the back of the tongue on the finish. Just wonderfully well done younger whisky. Great finish. Great mouth feel, super rich and creamy. Great overall everything 3.25 and you could talk me into 3.5