Soba45
Springbank 18 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
July 23, 2021 (edited April 21, 2024)
I ran down my whisky collection and took a break for a bit to give my stomach lining a break but when I saw the latest releases of SB 18 and 15 I cracked and bought them. The last year or two people (and unfortunately it seems collectors) have woken up to the joys of SB. Add COVID supply issues in the mix and the 18 yr and special releases sell out very fast down in NZ. The CS 12 yr release suffers the same fate and you can't dawdle even with the 15 yr shockingly.
Anyhow i had read the reviews and I knew it was a boubon cask release with a tiny bit of port casking but given the 2015 release i had hoarded blew me away and got into rare .2% territory (the number of drams i have given a 4.75 and above rating to) I had to have it. Sadly the 2020 release just isn't in the same league...at all...i go between a 4 and 4.25 but I think i prefer the rougher yet more flavourful 15 yr 2020. So 4 it is.
It's got the usual refinement, beautiful vanilla sweetness but personally without any sherry influence it seems incomplete and a bit soulless. I really am getting zero port but at 12% of the casking not surprising i guess.Having said that I just remembered that I have had amazing cs strength special release bourbon casks from them so its more than just missing sherry. It just doesn't have a lot of complexity and is just...good. Still in the age of stupid whisky prices you have to commend SB. 4 years later and I paid only 5% more. That alone is why SB deserves respect. They could go Octomore or Highland Park level stupid with pricing but they don't. And they employ waaay more local staff than the big boys. I could go on but despite the slight hero worship this one just didn't blow me away. You should still like this drop if you are a SB fan but definitely don't feel sorry if it passed you by.
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@ContemplativeFox Yeah we've been lucky in NZ..last country standing! Not to sure how long for though. We can't keep it out forever and its going to take a while to get to 70%. My Pfizer shares are going gangbusters though :-)
@PBMichiganWolverine Well sadly a chunk of that 40% who don't believe in vaccination will come up against something else they don't believe in.. evolution and natural selection!
@cascode Love the Mongo reference; sad to hear that you're dealing with the same idiocy we're seeing here.
@LiquorLonghorn Sounds like all is well! glad to hear it.
@ContemplativeFox ha just to lighten the mood! I still have a bottle of Glendronach 21 that I’m slowly nursing. My rums are an Eldorado 15 year and Foursquare Sagacity. Both highly recommended.
@PBMichiganWolverine I am deeply saddened by the politicization of everything. It’s touched our court system, policing, secondary and higher education, medical, scientific research, job work environment. It ruins everything it touches. Let’s hope that whiskey stays unpoliticized.
@Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington I don’t even know what to say at this point—-we’re so plagued with misinformation, regardless of what side of the politics we’re on, that it’s just dividing us a nation.
@PBMichiganWolverine I still have at least one person or family a day that hasn’t pulled the trigger because “they’re not real vaccines yet” - America is plagued with actively crafted misinformation. And some of those people probably sell whiskey as well…
On a way less important topic, @LiquorLonghorn you just reduced scotch to one category, so I'm deathly curious as to which scotch you have on your shelf. Also, which 2 rums do you have and should I buy them?
@Soba45 @cascode glad to hear you're getting your vaccines! It's been weird how a couple of months ago here we reached 70% vaccination among adults and things got fairly back to normal. Most of the world is still struggling to get vaccines while here they're begging people to take them. And we might get whiplash from Delta and go back into lockdown at any time. Good luck and good whiskey to you and everyone else!
@cascode @Soba45 here it’s becoming a pandemic for the unvaccinated. Yeah, the Pfizer and Moderna are lower in efficacy against Delta, but it prevents hospitalization and death. But if you’re unvaccinated, you’re done for against the Delta. So, we have a rather large population ( about 40%) that’s unvaccinated, for whatever reasons
@cascode Ah nice your progessing with the vaccine schedule. I saw footage of the protests..crazy stuff.. and the poor horse. Great timing on that photo though! Delta is crazy..infectious in 1 day..1000 times the viral load of the original. Sadly i just think once it gets a foothold it's next to impossible to erradicate.
@Soba45 Had an AstraZeneca jab a while back and the second is due in a couple of weeks. Delta is running wild over here right now and the current lockdown is tighter than the first one a year ago. Still, we've had less than 1,000 fatalities since the virus was identified, so the measures have been worth it. A few thousand fools staged an anti-lockdown anti-vaxing demo in Sydney last weekend. One bogan punched a police horse in the head - says it all really. Mongo lives 🙄
@PBMichiganWolverine Cheers, just a fleeting appearance before I drop back into winter hibernation :-). Have enjoyed being on the sidelines reading all your and others reviews. Hopefully you all get through Delta ok over there, seems like it's blowing up again. I've got a contract in the health sector at the moment amongst the covid response unit and others and about to get my Pfizer jab. Fun times!
@LiquorLonghorn Ah nice that's what I'm about to head back into. Back down to zero bottles again.. sadly I'm just to gutsy when there is a decent bottle in the house :-). Gotta get rested for Dramfest 2022 next February..haha
@Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington Cheers :-). Yes they are buried away down the pack somewhere. 2015 was a cracking year.. sadly the prices for those bottles are a bit crazy the days. I'm interested to see what 2021 will bring. It'll hopefully be available in Dramfest 2022 when I'm there :-).
@Soba45 I’ve not seen a review from you in over a year. Good to see it back !
Glad to hear your gut is doing better. I’m in a three month recovery period right now too. No booze of any kind while my system recalibrates. I’ve also trimmed down my bottles considerably. A bourbon, a scotch, two rums, and a highland and a valley tequila. That’s it.
Excellent comparison and perspective, I’ll have to read your 2015 notes if they’re posted. Springbank is fighting the good fight.