A ‘Duty Paid Sample’ of 70cl, or as it is commonly known, a ‘Cage Bottling’. Erik E/H. brought this over last year, and shared this one with the group. And as is quite well known to returning readers, I love me some Springbank!

With it being a very limited bottling, although not exactly one-of-one as they once were, there’s not much to say about it except what can be found on the Whiskybase page. So let’s just get to it!

Sniff:
Even though it’s a fresh sherry cask there are not too many typical sherry notes. There is sulfur though, but I’m one of those folks that can appreciate some of it. This is the ‘matches’ kind, so slightly sharp on the arrival. After a little while it gets a bit more rounded, a bit more sweet. It has the expected notes of hessian and a whiff of mushroom.

Sip:
The palate packs a punch, but with this being at 56.7 that’s not too surprising. There are chili peppers, some oak and barley. Also a hint of date, hessian, hay and more chili peppers.

Swallow:
The finish continues with quite some heat initially. After half a minute or so it starts to dissipate and dates, nuts, and oak start showing up a lot more.

It’s a fairly straight forward sherry cask matured Springbank with all the good and (for some) bad that comes with it. I find these bottlings highly enjoyable, but that’s not overly surprising.

88/100