@Jan-Case The year I had a sample of i forget what it was but it was really nice but a bottle is nearly twice the price of the 18 so imho wasn't worth it. If your dad is buying and you are sharing then get stuck in :-)

@Jan-Case based on the tastes I’ve had with @ctbeck11, there is no bad Springbank product. Longrow 18 is a new favorite of mine and that 21 Springbank is well worth the price unlike a lot of several hundred dollar bottles out there.

@Jan-Case Guess you have to buy them all to be sure :) I’d say the Longrow 18 I have is a stunner. Granted, it’s certainly an acquired taste. To me, it seems that the dirtier, more robust Longrow spirit maintains that wonderful distillate character for longer periods of aging than Springbank (and I’d assume Hazelburn as well, but I’ve never had one older than 13 years). Regardless of what you choose, they’re all delicious, and absolutely worth the price of admission.

@Soba45 Yep, I was initially surprised to see how much darker the 15 Year was than the 18 Year, but Sherry influence, more so than age, makes the difference.

@ctbeck11 man, that doesn’t make it easier - now the Longrow 18 is in play as well. I see what opens up on the Springbank 18 and 21 offers in European online stores and maybe go by that. It I make my dad buy the 21 so is can get the 18 and we share. Well maybe it decides for itself because the Springbank retail offers are still really limited in Europe.

@Jan-Case FWIW, @pkingmartin and I cracked my 2019 bottling of the 21 Year (45% Port/55% Rum) this weekend. The neck pour was fantastic, although I can’t say how this vintage compares to others. It immediately rocketed up my list of favorite Springbanks. Although, I think my 2015 bottling of Longrow 18 and 2020 bottling of Hazelburn 13 Oloroso Cask are still my favorites. Months of oxidation do wonders for Springbank products, so I won’t be surprised if the 21 Year creeps up the leaderboard for me over time.

@@ctbeck11 @jan-case Ah that's good to know another variable year to year I forgot about. I had an older 2015 i think...definitely heavier sherry influence...i think the 15 yr may have gone the other way i.e. much more sherry. Hmmm it would be interesting to see if I still enjoy the 18 as much if more heavily ex-bourbon cask. Springbank is a bit more of a lottery than other distilleries who aim for more consistency in their offerings...makes things more interesting but harder to recommend year to year.

@Soba45 I’m wondering what the 21y does and if it’s worth going for that instead.

@Jan-Case Great to hear you are enjoying it :-). It ticks a lot of boxes for me in terms of peat/smoke, sherry and a lot more going on. It's definitely one that needs time open as you've found. The 18 year really got into its stride after a month or so. Definitely try and get the 18. It was one of my top whiskies ever by the end. That said Springbank is notorious for batch variation.. i've had a number of people have awesome bottlings run out and grabbed another one and been disappointed. I only had that once thank goodness...waaay over sulphured. Good luck!

@Soba45 I have a 2018 bottling of the 18 year. It’s matured 100% in ex-bourbon casks. The newer bottlings seem to be more bourbon cask maturation, while the older ones used a larger portion of sherry casks in the batches.

@Soba45 I am working myself through a bottle of the 15y as well at the moment. Once it is about done I gonna get the 18y to compare them. But boy oh boy is this a great whisky (I orgininally got it as a recommendation from you). Since I have opened it some months ago it improved quite a bid in the bottle too.

I've slowly dipped my toes back into the world of whisky and now have two bottles. This was one of them. The 18 i just can't get in Nz at the moment so I got the 15. Only opened a couple of days and loving it. I'll wait until the end of the bottle to call this over the 18 or vice versa.

@PBMichiganWolverine Same! This reminds me that I wanted to go back and update this review, as it was one I wrote very early on and it deserves more. I’ll set aside a week or so in the near future to tackle all the Springbank products I have.

I’ve not yet met a bad springbank