Longrow Red 11 Year Fresh Port Casks

2016 at Blok. Nice balance smoke, sweet, wine

In the Glass: This kind of lives up to the "Red" moniker, it has a lot of dark/burnt sienna going for it. On the Nose: Seeing as how this is cask strength, it needs a few drops of water to subdue the alcohol a bit, otherwise there is a fair amount of astringency to it. Once that's done and it's opened a bit in the glass... Sweet. Red berry jam, roasted nuts and vegetal peat. This may be a peated whisky, but it's no smoke bomb from Islay. The Springbank character is very much intact at the core of this, but the port cask influence is definitely present. I think that a lot of the fruity aspects come from this, though it dials down the "saltiness" that a lot of Springbanks are known for. Taste: An amped up version of the nose. The first thing you get is an intense fruit sweetness which takes on a touch of smoke through the development. The finish has a lot of bitter roasted nuts to it that plays really nicely against that initial sweetness. I really recommend looking out for this one. I haven't tried the other "Reds", but I can imagine that they are equally interesting. This is a great example of how gentle and characterful a peated whisky can be, with only touches of smoke.