ScotchingHard
Springbank 16 Year Local Barley
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed
October 4, 2018 (edited February 13, 2021)
2oz pour at The Whiskey House in San Diego
Only Springbank can make garbage delicious. I get this note like your neighbor fucks abandoned cheap furniture by the trash compactor and it’s been raining all week. There’s that dank musty rotting composite leather balanced beautifully with barley and charcoal.
This quite reminds me of Bruichladdich Islay barley in that the beautiful malt is really highlighted. It’s got a powerful brown sugar sweetness with yellow-orange fruits like lemons and peaches and mangoes. The Springbank rot somehow adds balance and beauty. I don’t understand it! This just reaches levels of complexity that Bruichladdich can’t match. It’s a shame I can’t get a bottle. I’ve had this at bars twice and I’m sure I can’t discover everything this whisky has to offer even if I had my own bottle. I would literally drop a few hundred for this.
MARK: 95/100
38.0
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per
Pour
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@cascode I had a pour of this last year I think at a friend’s place. He was gifted this as a client. He casually bought this out one evening, had no idea what it was,. Neither did I, till next morning when I googled it. Turns out it’s made from an extremely hard to grow barley that was used decades ago. Called “prism” barley
@PBMichiganWolverine I'm saddened to hear that. Not just because the price is so high, but because it is happening at all. What a tragedy to not simply drink and enjoy such wonderful whisky.
@cascode @ScotchingHard in auctions or hoarded away. The last Local Barleys ( from decades ago) are fetching upward $1000 I think
Probably impossible to find except at auction now. The subsequent 10 and 11 year Local Barley expressions have been almost as good. Almost.