Dreaming-of-Islay
Springbank 17 Year Sherry Wood
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
December 3, 2017 (edited April 4, 2020)
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.
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Good review. My 2c is that the Springbank 10/12 year old expressions are simply of such high quality that you need to move up to a much older expression to get a sense of significantly higher quality. The 15-18 year olds always seem to me like different profiles rather than necessarily more "mature". The 21 and 25 years olds are, however, noticably more mature.
@SolanaRoots @LeeEvolved Thanks guys! I will review more Springbanks, if I can get my hands on them!
This is great information, @Dreaming-of-Islay. While I haven’t had very many Springbank offerings at this point I’ve always thought that their overall profile may not lead to much differences in taste when it comes to age statements (ie: 10yo vs 12yo vs 21yo). I think Springbank’s winning formula is cask finishing instead. That Lowland style malt needs different casks finishes to take on improved flavors. Of course, this is just my $0.02. Great review, cheers.
Great run of Springbank reviews, really insightful & interesting. Any plans to review the Springbank Green 12 & 13yr expressions or the trio of Springbank Local Barley offerings?