Springbank 1996 19 Year Fresh Port Single Cask #731 (K & L Wine Merchants)

Nose: vanilla, phrenolic, smoked fish background, musk, river stones, apricot. Arrival: phrenolic, smoothness, butterscotch, lemon rind, wheat. Finish: very long, nutty, light smoke. Sublime!

Well, my friend @Telex (from Maryland) came through with another amazing Springbank sample for me to try: the 19 year old Port Cask Finished. This was a single barrel offering for K & L Wine Merchants and was limited to just a paltry 252 bottles. It’s cask strength and nothing short of amazing. This is what my brain remembers the 2013 Laphroaig Cairdeas Port Wood as tasting like: excellent smoke, deep port sweetness and richness all wound together beautifully. This was bottled at 52.4% ABV and is a rich gold color in the glass, with tons of legs and tiny droplets while looking super oily as it settled back down after a thorough spin. The nose is rich, Port wine with your typical light, Springbank earthy peat. Raisins and plums and raspberry purée swirl around a lightly chocolate and smoky background. The nose is truly remarkable. A little oak cask appears here and there, but not a single bit of alcoholic astringency or heat filter through. The palate is a delicate peaty, smoky balance with the luscious Port flavors. Grapes and berries again with just the right amount of heat leaking through to keep it from being washed over with dessert tones. There’s a razor sharp bite of oak after mid sip that shocks the tongue a bit too much, but it’s also somewhat refreshing. We are drinking whisky here, right? The finish is long, chocolatey with a reserved sweetness that closely resembles a good sherry finished dram. It’s not drying or cloying and there’s a little pop of heat once again- perfectly timed. Some vanilla lingers well after the sip just to keep you tuned in. Great stuff. Overall, this may be the best Springbank I’ve tasted to date. Jason has sent me several great SB drams after I’d mostly written them off as either to harsh when they’re young or too boring when they get some age on them. I think the key here is quality finishing casks. The more I try, the more I like them. This is a beautifully port finished whisky- perhaps even the best port dram I’ve had. I’d be a fool to give this any less than a perfect score. So, 5 stars it is. Thanks again, Jason. Completely amazing.

I was privileged to try a sample of this 19-year old single-cask expression, aged in a port pipe that yielded 252 bottles at cask strength, thanks to the generosity of Telex. The nose exhibits some notes that are similar to the 17-year old Sherry release, with that chalky vitamin tablet signature leading the way, followed by some licorice, cherry, and plum. That plum is a unique note that I haven't noticed in any other Springbanks that I've tried and recalls to me some fond (and not so fond) memories of getting tanked on baijiu during past trips to China. On the tongue, this scotch stays faithful to its family by highlighting its dry, woody, minty, and medicinal side. That light touch of plum dances across the tastebuds ever so briefly, and there's some orange as well, but this -- like all other Springbanks that I've tried -- would never be called a fruity scotch. Springbank's distillery character is so strong that, in all variety of cask finishes, its minerality shines through and is the dominant flavor. That means that you have to love that core flavor if you're going to truly love Springbank. The finish on the 19 is the best of any Springbank I've tried to date, with the most well-rounded combination of mint, smoke, chalk, and plum.

I need a dedicated pipeline of this offering to my mouth. The nose is complex with apricots/oranges, leather, brine, tobacco, and mint. For the palate, I get a huge juicy plum, sea salt, more tobacco, mocha, espresso, more fruit like a raspberry compote. Flaky crust and then into a nice medium finish with more mint and chocolate chip ice cream, with smoke on the back end. Overall, a great balanced dram and it’s too bad there are only 252 bottles. A song for this dram should be a rare b-side as well. Let’s say “Acquiesce” by Oasis.