ContemplativeFox
Springbank 10 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
January 3, 2022 (edited January 6, 2022)
Rating: X/23
This is from a comically aerated bottle, so it's not very representative.
N: Herbal, vegetal, a bit earthy. There's far less richness and fullness than there is in the Springbank 15 I have next to it. This is lighter and grassier (dry grass). There is a fair amount of depth floating through though as the particular vegetal and herbal flavors morph. Raising the glass to my lips to take a sip, I get a wave of smoke.
P: This has clearly lost a lot of its alcohol. It isn't quite the dregs that I'd feared it would be, but it's been severely affected. That said, despite being light and kind of watery, there is some really nice balance and complexity here.
Dry wood, dry grass, a little bit of live grass, some cinnamon, some vanilla. Toasty grain, a rich layer of smoke. The malt blends very nicely with the toasty grain to produce a rich sweetness. The balance here is impeccable, though it could be a bit too mellow (ignoring the obvious waterines caused by the reduction in ABV). A bit of minerals like shells on the beach. There's a faint bitterness like I expect from the ABV being lowered, but not as much as I might have expected.
F: Dry wood, dry grass, toasty, sea shells. There's a surprising degree of nuance here and it's quite nice.
- Conclusion -
According to my refractometer, this has fallen to a mere 33.5-34% ABV! Not at all representative of the usual Springbank 10 46% ABV. I'm really shocked that this is still at all good. I'm not going to rate it considering the circumstances, but I enjoyed these dregs.
58.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@cascode Thanks for the explanation. Not sure how I made it this far without knowing that.
@ctbeck11 Oxidation changes the character of spirits but it doesn’t reduce abv. That’s due to evaporation which has increasing effect as the quantity in the bottle drops. A little alcohol is also lost to hygroscopic reaction with water (from humidity).
@cascode Haha, I'm not sure if I should feel proud or not that I've necessitated the addition of an asterisk to your Springbank oxygenation rule 😅
Springbank always improves with time and oxygen, but there are limits, man 😀
@skillerified It was 2-3 years, but it was at under 100 ml for at least a year of that, so I'd expect most bottles to take substantially longer to reach this point
How long did it sit to reach that point? I would think maybe years.
@ctbeck11 Yeah, the alcohol vaporizes at lower temperature, which is why if you heat 40% liquor on the stove for a minute you can light it on fire 🔥
Somehow I didn’t know that liquor loses ABV with oxygen. That’s a significant difference!