Springbank is one of my favourite distilleries in Scotland. Not so much their whisky (although quite a few of my top-ever drams are from their stills) but the distillery itself. The people, the town, the vibe are just plain awesome. I still hope to go there someday to do their whisky school! Maybe next year, if I manage to not spend everything on bottles…

Nose:
Salty at first with some caramel and cereal. Rather typical Springbank style, with a little bit of a dustiness. Like old warehouses. Nothing too extreme.

Taste:
The flavour veers in the direction of the nosed caramel with more hints of caramel fudge and scottish tablet. The saltiness is back as well, with some pepper this time. It also shows the thick sweetness of banana, without the flavour. Does that make any sense at all?

Finish:
Well, this is okay. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not very long and doesn’t add too many flavours. It just summarizes what happened before.

What I described in the notes on the finish can be said for this entire dram. It’s okay, but that’s it. Kind of Springbank in the middle of the road. Should you search for this one? Meh. I’d go for their 12 year old Cask Strength. Comparable but cheaper.

Springbank 1996, 12 year old, SMWS, ‘Stripped Down’, 57%, used to be around € 64 but it came out a few years ago.