This just occurred to me: If I just repost the entire post from yesterday, only a very limited amount of people would notice, and I’d get away with it. Sort of.

This ‘second’ cask, to me at least, logically it would have been the first, was literally a sister cask. 550 is the number of this one, 551 was yesterday’s. The age of the bottles only differs in minutes or hours, since they were filled and emptied on exactly the same day.

A very cool thing to try these side by side, because it doesn’t happen often that you get this chance. So, from a purely educational stand point, this is very interesting for us punters.

Let’s see what this brings us!

Sniff:
More minerals on the nose and slate as well. Straw and oak make an appearance, and I get licorice. Slightly timid at first, and some vanilla showing up after the initial notes. Minor hints of barley and a whiff of smoke.

So, similar, but not the same as cask 551. This one is more minerally, and there are hints of vanilla that I didn’t find before. Classic too, but not as weighty or typical.

Sip:
The palate shows some peppery heat with straw and oak. Barley husks and quite some wood notes. I get flavors of sand, slate, minerals, those grainy biscuits you get for cheap in the supermarket. Mash, slightly sour.

A very different balance than cask 551. Far more focus on the grain and the flavors you get from that. I guess this cask was a lot less active.

Swallow:
The finish is smooth and focuses on the barley again. Some light smoke and oak too, with a slightly salty end to it.

Quite a different dram from the previous one. While both are very ‘Springbank-y’ but where this one focuses on barley notes, the other one was far more grassy and woody. I’d say minerals and barley are the theme of this one, which makes it a rather coastal dram.

Having said that, I also love this one very much. It’s a really, really great dram that can stand to almost anything. It’s quite intense, although the palate is slightly more gentle than the other one.

91/100

Springbank 25/10/1996 – 03/03/2016, 19yo, Refill Bourbon Hogshead 550, 56.4%, Archives (Shells from the Bay of Caracas). It used to cost € 160 but is already sold out.

Thanks to Whiskybase for sending samples!