SrirachaSeahawk
Longrow Red 11 Year Fresh Port Casks
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
June 30, 2016 (edited November 16, 2019)
In the Glass: This kind of lives up to the "Red" moniker, it has a lot of dark/burnt sienna going for it.
On the Nose: Seeing as how this is cask strength, it needs a few drops of water to subdue the alcohol a bit, otherwise there is a fair amount of astringency to it.
Once that's done and it's opened a bit in the glass...
Sweet. Red berry jam, roasted nuts and vegetal peat. This may be a peated whisky, but it's no smoke bomb from Islay. The Springbank character is very much intact at the core of this, but the port cask influence is definitely present. I think that a lot of the fruity aspects come from this, though it dials down the "saltiness" that a lot of Springbanks are known for.
Taste: An amped up version of the nose. The first thing you get is an intense fruit sweetness which takes on a touch of smoke through the development. The finish has a lot of bitter roasted nuts to it that plays really nicely against that initial sweetness.
I really recommend looking out for this one. I haven't tried the other "Reds", but I can imagine that they are equally interesting. This is a great example of how gentle and characterful a peated whisky can be, with only touches of smoke.
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