Springbank 14 Years Old 2000 27.108 A savoury experience! (53.2%, SMWS, Refill Bourbon Barrel, 174 Bottles, 2015)

• Category: Campbeltown single malt scotch whisky
• Origin: Springbank Distillery
• Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
• ABV: 53.2%
• Cost: £53

What they say

Cask No. 27.108

Smelling this one neat it made us all very hungry; quiche Lorraine, cheese on toast, roasted red pepper cheese omelette and a stone baked wood fired pizza margherita – I think you get the picture! We also got smoked mackerels and kippers – possibly on the pizza. We could no longer wait to taste it; pickled onion Monster Munch, bacon frazzles and salt & vinegar crisps all washed down with a ‘Pickleback’. Water turned it into a Ploughman’s lunch with apple chutney, celery sticks and sea salt balsamic vinegar crisps. The taste was briny and oily like deep fried onion rings with a sprinkling of Szechuan pepper.

Drinking tip: An odd but charming dram. Expect the unexpected.

Date Distilled: 31 March 2000 Colour: Golden toffee wrapper Age: 14 years Flavour : Oily & coastal Cask Type: Refill ex-bourbon barrel Whisky Region: Campbeltown Outturn: 174 bottles

What I say

Sampled at SMWS Queen Street on 24/1/2015, my final smoky dram for the evening was this rather interesting sounding Springbank expression with hints of salt and vinegar crisps I hoped this would be a hit…

My tasting notes:

• Colour: Amber gold (9/20), medium-fine tears leaving fine legs
• Nose: Sharp and acidic like pickling vinegar, malty, meaty, beefy crisps or monster munch, floral heather honey, cereal barley malt, light peat smoke
• Taste: Malty, wood polish, waxy and oily, candlewax/beeswax, orange zest, yellow and white grapefruit juice, syrupy in mouthfeel, develops into toffee oak wood and liquorice
• Finish: Long, liquorice and dusty smoke

Overall

Although there was a lot to like in the flavours of this Springbank expression from SMWS, I found it a little too rough around the edges for my liking. Too vinegary on the nose and too much liquorice presentation on the palate that suggested not the most active of casks to me. At the end of the day there was still plenty of good Springbank character in here to keep this interesting or it would have scored much lower.

Score 79/100

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