With it being Liberation Day in the Netherlands, I decided to liberate the last of my sample of this from its bottle. I was lucky enough to do a bottle-share with this, after winning a ballot for it at AceDrinks. Of course, unlike many slightly more expensive shares, this one filled up really fast.

This is the first Local Barley release that also contains a bit of rum matured whisky in it. Before it was mostly Bourbon, with an occasional Sherry side step. The barley for this version came from Glencraigs farm and was made from the Belgravia strain. None of these things are new, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a thing.

I tried to keep my fanaticism in check when tasting this. Just to get to a more accurate rating instead of being simply too enthusiastic about the new Local Barley release existing, and being available.

Sniff:
Funky spirit with quite a bite. There’s a sweetness that’s new to the series. A syrupy sweetness with sugary fruit. A mountain of straw and barley.

Sip:
Barley, straw, coastal salinity. Hessian, old paper and wet attics. Sugary fruit, boiled candy. A whiff of oily smoke too.

Swallow:
A funky finish, lots of salinity, lots of barley. Not overly long, but intense. A bit of oily smoke too.

At first I was pretty thrilled with this one. The very straight forward approach of very clean Springbank with a huge focus on the barley. Then, I started doubting whether it was actually that good and if I wasn’t being blinded by my enthusiasm.

Luckily, there was something left in the bottle and I sat down to drink that too, the day after the initial tasting. I gave it a lot of wiggle room, with me drinking a glass in the sun, when lighting the barbecue. Then, at night, when doing something else. And the conclusion is that I wasn’t too enthusiastic. This is absolutely gorgeous whisky.

90/100