Springbank 10 Year

Light nose w/hints of cake, honey, and tinge of mustiness (may just have been an old bottle). Tasty, but not robust.

N: Campfire smoke, earth, salt water on wood docks. Moss, mint, forest morning dew. Vanilla and brown sugar, which suddenly break and make way for peach, pear, and pineapple (which is especially strong on hard swirls). Almond extract in the background. Hints of bread and treacle. Simply wonderful. P: Fruit forward with peach, pear, hint of green apple (maybe), and a dash of sour pineapple. Vanilla, smoke, ocean water, black licorice. Salty and slightly bitter, but also syrupy sweet on the tip of the tongue and sometimes at the edges. Finish is a bit subtle - hearty dark chocolate powder slowly shifts to what I imagine it would taste like to take a mouthful of ground coffee (good coffee though). Then, after a few sips, you notice the escalating chili pepper burn - less than habanero hot, but maybe a little more than jalapeno. It's hotter than most bourbons, for certain. And yet, there's little noticeable tannin influence. This might be the best entry-level single malt in the world of Scotch. I'm not sure what else you could ask of it. It's delicious. Period. But it's also damn interesting - when you think it'll zig, it zags; when you think it'll zag, it zigs. It's funky, offbeat, and even feels artistic (IDK what I mean - just a gut feeling), but remains approachable. There's no trade offs, as you might expect at the price point: this is just good, interesting, unique, approachable, shareable, and it's never boring. I will be buying this again. No question.

Light, peatie, oak