It’s been quiet on the blog here. Mostly due to me being insanely busy with work and preoccupied with other, non-whisky things. In all honesty, I have missed having time to sit down with a couple of drams, so I’m hoping to make up for that the coming weekend.

The misses is away so there’s no one to comment on my drinking, so things are looking up. Of course, this is in jest, because the misses only comments on my drinking when it’s regarding non-whisky stuff…

Anyway, another one from a bottle-share hosted by Erik Elixir, this time for the 24 year old Springbank drawn from a mix of casks. Port and Oloroso Sherry. Interestingly, distilleries tend to specify which kind of wine or sherry cask a whisky matured in, but the type of port is often a mystery.

Anyway, old Springbank. Generally insanely expensive, and this 35cl bottle is (currently) no difference. Setting you back at least € 290 in the secondary market that translates to € 580 for 70cl. Just saying.

Sniff:
Quite some oak, with a huge dose of Springbank-y notes. Hessian, marram grass, sea weed and a whiff of smoke. There are notes of peach, slightly yeasty and a hint of walnuts.

Sip:
The palate is rather gentle and dry. There’s a bit of mulchy oak that brings a bit of bite with white pepper. Peach, beery yeast / yeasty beer / wash. A nutty hibt, with hessian, rope and some copper.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly more metallic. Less barley-like, but still with some oak and a minor bitter nuttiness.

My guess would be that this was a second fill sherry cask and a minor portion of port casks was used. With there being 1920 bottles of it, I guess it’s one cask of both, but I don’t see any information on whether it’s a first or second fill cask. Anyway, the whisky is awesome. I love that the previous booze is kept in check and the whisky got quite a lot of time to pick up some oaky notes without being a ‘wood only’ dram. Gorgeous stuff!

90/100