Whisky : Springbank 19 Year Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Country/Region : Scotland/Campbeltown

ABV : 59%

Cask : Sherry Butt

Age : 19 Years (Distilled May 9, 1997, Bottled Oct. 12, 2016)

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : Sweet concentrated fruits; dried cherries and rum raison cake lead the way.  A faint powdery cocoa turns toward a café mocha, a subtle blend of darker chocolate and bitter espresso.  Overtime the nose opens up towards a thick, syrupy, and well flambéed cherries jubilee.

Palate : Delicate and astringent fruity floral notes hit the palate first, it’s cherry cola, li hing mui (salted dried plums), and sour cherries.  A faint peppery peat bites in the background, with the final embers of a pinewood fire giving a faint but sweet smoke.  My wife likened the dram to a sharp salty cheese.  Though it’s not dominant, the mineral water funk of Springbank is present.

Finish : Long and lingering the sour cherries and dried plums give way to juicy apricot.

Score : 8

Mental Image : A cold winter’s eve, it’s late and the wood in fireplace has burned low, but we’re still awake, chewing and sucking on dried fruits, watching the embers slowly wink out.

Something Similar : Deanston 9 Year Bordeaux (similar concentrated berries & coffee, bit less balanced)

Something Worse : Springbank 10 Year (more mineral funk, less fruit, less finish)

Notes : This Springbank was on fire.  An excellent balance of sweet fruit, subtle spice, and faint smoke.  As my wife noted, it had an excellent salty sharp quality, a kind of floral umami note that a winter cheese might have.

This Springbank has a dash of the typical mineral funk found in the core lineup and in the heavily peated Longrow.  The funk is largely muted by the dried fruits and their subtle salty and smokey companion notes.  I have never had a Springbank quite so balanced between different flavor points.  This was truly excellent and left me hungry for more aged product.  It also reaffirmed the inclusion of Springbank on the itinerary my wife and I made for our trip to Scotland (which was this August, but is now on hold while we buy a house.)

I skipped my recommendation of something better ]as I honestly have not been able to come up with something that is in the same vein but improved.  And while I pinned the Deanston 9 Year Bordeaux as similar, this Springbank honestly runs circles around it.  Though the Deanston is a good stand in considering availability and affordability.

Maybe this dram was a unicorn, maybe a snowflake, whichever metaphor works, it was amazing, it was unique, and while I am sad I won’t be having another pour of it, I know there are always other fish in the sea.