Springbank 10 Year

Whoa Bobo!!! Take my arse to Campbeltown!! This was my first Springbank, and I can't WAIT to get the cask strength I just saw in a local store. This is by far, the best balanced, yet intense, 10 year old scotch I've ever tried. The nose had peat, honey, tea, vanilla, and the palate had those plus caramel drizzle, cinnamon, cream, TCP/iodine goodness... gracious... I could have drank the whole bottle in one night. This is not your flashy NAS offering, this can stand well on its own without gimmicks. This tastes as it could be straight from Islay. A very great experience, as well as a surprise. I think I'll be spending A LOT of time with this distillery in the future. The theme of this dram needs to be a sexy song since it’s a passionate dram. I am thinking “The Killing Moon” by Echo and the Bunnymen.

Un peu trop peaty/smokey a mon gout.

Poured into the glass, you immediately notice a pleasant dark, caramel hue, which given the young age is perhaps due to the sherry component (the two whisky souls are joined at the end of aging, without undergoing an overall finish in one or other barrel). And on the nose the presence of sherry makes itself felt, with touches of caramel and red fruit, suffused with a light peat, more mineral than burnt (we are not on Islay, clearly), a lot of cereal (here is the bourbon), a touch of chocolate. Not invasive alcohol. To let it breathe in the glass, the salinity is accentuated, with a pleasantly moist and sweet peat, to make you almost think that you could eat it (spoiler: better not). By letting the whisky flow on the palate, the influence of the sherried cask is attenuated in favor of marine salinity, oily and almost buttery (like salted butter), peach, lemon, a pleasant tingling of spices and alcohol, wet peat. All well balanced and full-bodied, decisive, not at all accommodating and pimping: despite being ten years old, it is not exactly a malt for the first approach to the world of whiskys (but to that of Springbank it is). Finished the glass (alas, sooner or later it happens...), the salty sweetness accompanies for some time (not particularly long) together with the oily peat that caressed the palate.

Geekfest 12. Glenn enjoyed, Thom found it raw when neat but mellowed nicely with ice.