Springbank 17 Year Sherry Wood

Very nice with a touch of water, quite strong and bitter otherwise. I still prefer the Springbank 15

In my four-sample Springbank tasting, I moved on from two 12-year old expressions to jump up the family tree to a significantly older single malt, this 17-year old aged in a variety of sherry and refill sherry casks, butts, etc. Once again, the aroma is instantly recognizable as Springbank. Oh, there's sherry here, but it's sherry on Springbank's terms: mild, dry, and with another wallop of that chalky minerality or medicinal flavor. Springbank is a distillery with a big personality, and it won't let you forget that it's in the room. The taste follows along the same lines, with dry sherry, a good meaty malt flavor, orange peel, and cherries. There are wisps of smoke on the palate and, you guessed it, more minerality. I wasn't able to appreciate any marked difference between this older expression and the younger, 12-year old cask strength ones, which somewhat surprised me. My experience of some single malts, like Laphroaig, is that they develop some more idiosyncratic, exotic or tropical fruit flavors over time, but there still is not a huge amount of fruitiness or sweetness in this older Springbank. It is creamier in texture, which may be the main improvement. This scotch waves goodbye with a medicinal coda combining smoke and mint.

Sharp, big pow at the beginning, biggest I think I ever had... Spicy. Finishes quietly and quite clean. Quite an experience.