Springbank 12YO Cask Strength 2021 (Batch 23)

All creamy delicious vanilla sweetness at first, then transitions to some excellent orange (sour orange?) notes mid and late palate, along with a nice rounded smokiness. Nothing sharp on this one, but still enough Springbank character to stand out from the other all bourbon maturations out there. A couple drops of water makes the nise explode with more vanilla, and adds another layer of barley sugar sweetness. Delicious! Very thankful to have found a couple dusty bottles of this at a random store stop.

Batch 23 - the 100% bourbon batch! Nose - Springbank has gotten so wonderfully clean while saving that funk and classic character. This all ex bourbon cask holds that so well. Oak, citrus, and classic springbank malt. This isn't a whisky about how many notes it has but it's more just about how well it executes those notes. Taste - Unlike the well executed nose, the taste is anything but simple. It's big bold but has layers. This one opens with sweet springbank sugary cookie malt. Then bitter citrus and a hint of oak. Then the peat comes in, this intense old whisky note comes in (did they top load this?) with intensity of citrus and oak bitters, sugars, vanillas, and yes lovely peat sneaks in to add layers of complexity. Outstanding whisky finish! 3.75 from me on this morning/evening. Not my favorite springbank 12 but this is as well done, executed, and technically correct as springbank gets. I'm loving these recent batches.