I’m a tad late in reviewing this, about a year or so. This 11 year old Local Barley release is Springbank’s second release of the five promised bottlings. The first being the 16 year old and the third is a 10 year old that came out in December.
The most identifying about this whisky is that it’s made with Bere barley. Bere is an ancient species of barley. Bere is old type of barley that was supposedly brought to Scotland by the Vikings. The word is old Scots for barley and is a type that grows in a short season of long days of sunlight, which makes it acclimated to the north of Scotland. Currently it is only grown on Orkney, Caithness and some other locations.
It is no longer used often, since the barley only has a low sugar yield, and therefore alcohol yield. Also, newer strains are much more drought and disease restistant, which makes it far more profitable to grow different strains.
The last couple of years it has experienced some sort of revival with the immense boom in whisky popularity, and the distilleries’ search to stand out from the crowd. Arran, Bruichladdich and Springbank have all released some Bere barley whiskies.
Anyway, this is Springbank’s edition. I expect there will be some more in the not too distant future. Of course, because of the gimmicky-ness of the whisky, it wasn’t cheap. Currently, it is somehow still available for some 125 euros.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
On the nose the barley gets a lot of attention, with some malt sugar too. Quite grain whisky like, to be honest, but with more depth, especially considering the age. It’s quite crisp, with a ‘snow’ like scent. Some apple chutney, coconut and pear peels. After a while I get a whiff of vanilla custard and sawdust.
Sip:
The palate is dry and rather intense. Tingling, with hints of oak and apple, some grain whisky likeness again. Slightly oily, like olive oil and a tinge of salt.
Swallow:
The finish mellows quickly, but stays rather rich. It’s crisp and dry, with lots of grain, apple and oak. Lightly spicy with a whiff of coconut.
Well, someone who says that the barley is of minor influence on the flavor of the whisky is an idiot. This is so different from any other Springbank that has come out over the years, it’s ridiculous. What I also find interesting is that this single malt of 11 years old tastes like a 25 year old Grain whisky, but with slightly more depth and dimensions.
This, of course, means I really like it. I do prefer the heavier style of Springbank found in the other Local Barley releases, but this is far from bad too. And an interesting diversion from what they normally do.
Having said that, if you keep in mind that the 10 year old from December is more or less the same price as this 11 year old, I would suggest going for the 10 year old. I find that a more impressive and memorable whisky than this. But, as said, this ain’t bad either.
A little while ago a friend of mine bottle shared his bottle of this old Springbank 100 Proof. It was bottled in 2005 for the Dutch market, and more specifically for Dutch bottle shop chain Gall & Gall. As far as I know Gall & Gall has focused more and more on the big brands over the years and has far less specific whiskies like this. At least, I can’t for the life of me remember when I ever saw something interesting and fairly priced in this chain of shops.
Anyway, it was a nice bottle share and I thought it smart to get my hands on a sample so I could continue my (slightly broken) series of Springbank reviews. I know I loved the old Springbank 100 Proofs, which are now replaced by the equally lovely (albeit slightly different) Springbank 12 Cask Strength series.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
The nose is rather strong and very ‘old fashioned’. It focuses on old barley, hay and some flint. There’s a whiff of smoke that comes off as slightly industrial. A rather pungent dram, but in a very good way.
Sip:
The palate is dry and rough. Almost gritty, with hints of malt sugar, oak and some heat from the alcohol. Barley, flint, apple and hay.
Swallow:
The finish has a note of apple peels, with oak and barley. It’s rather rich and well balanced. Very classical.
I am a bit of a Springbank fanboy, although far from the biggest fan out there. This is the kind of Springbank that made me fall in love with the brand a decade ago. It’s strong, no nonsense whisky, with a very classical approach to it. By that I mean it’s not an ‘engineered’ whisky, or one with fancy usage of casks. It showcases Springbank as a working museum, more or less.
It’s a highly enjoyable dram, and one that I wouldn’t mind having more of. However, this being bottled over a decade ago, you’re not going to find this outside of auctions or the secondary market. According to Whiskybase, this is going for about € 165, but that price might be outdated.
88/100
Springbank 100 Proof, 10yo, bottled in 2005, 57%, OB for Gall & Gall.
The first non-Springbank review of the year! I’ve not been blogging as much as I’d like, but let’s just hope to remedy that soon.
Earlier this week I got a package from The Whisky Exchange containing a sample of this new Kilchoman, exclusively bottled for them. It’s a 10 year old sherry matured Kilchoman, from a single butt (there’s 600 bottles, so it must be a butt, right?).
Generally, Kilchoman from either a sherry or bourbon cask is amazing, and this one has a rather decent age to it, especially for a Kilchoman. Based on Whiskybase, I can only find one 11 year old, but everything else is much younger. So one of the older Kilchomans, from a sherry butt, at cask strength. From one of the more trustworthy bottlers (by that I mean, their general level of quality if very good).
Sniff:
There’s quite a lot of smoke at first, with the smoke being slightly fatty and barbecue like. Charred bacon. Some oloroso sherry (I think it’s oloroso, at least), with peach. It’s also rather coastal. Salty, briny and even slightly fishy. Barbecued fish, maybe?
Sip:
The palate is on the sharp side, which isn’t strange with the ABV over 58%. Again, the barbecue smoke is persent, with some oak in the background. Peach, tar, hemp rope and a lot of sherry. In the background of this all, there’s a slightly creamy mouthfeel (after you’ve gotten used to the high ABV).
Swallow:
The finish sticks to the smoke notes for a long time, but is slightly more earhty than before. Warming, with barbecue and the bark you get on good ribs. A long finish, with fruity sherry and slightly drying hints of coastal/harbor flavors (tar and rope and salt).
Well, this is good. Very, very good. An absolutely gorgeous Kilchoman with lots of interesting notes. The coastal notes and the rather peaty character of the spirit combine very well with the fruity intensity of the sherry cask. It’s a very ballsy whisky with a lot of punchy flavors, at a high ABV, so it might not be for everyone, but I sure love it!
It’s currently available at The Whisky Exchange for £125, which seems fair for a whisky of this caliber, in the current market.
I alerted a friend of mine in Austria about these bottlings that I randomly spotted on Facebook, and he was kind enough to bottle share them (Thanks again, DSA!).
With a 21 year old Springbank that’s been matured in a fresh sherry cask, only to be finished in a port pipe, I think the word random is apt. I can’t imagine why someone would do that unless either the cask was utterly shit, or they’d have so much 21 year old Springbank on hands that it got boring.
I guess the first one is more likely.
So, a 21 year old Springbank bottled as a private release for a club (I guess) in Austria. Only seventy bottles were released and when it came out, this was a rather affordable Springbank 21. Now let’s find out why…
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
It’s very heavy on the nose with a bit more sharpness than a 48%, 21 year old made me expect. Stewed strawberries and jam, some ash and the earthiness of dunnage warehouses. It gets more hints of warm porridge as it opens up.
Sip:
The palate starts rather peppery with a lot more heat than I thought there’d be. It’s quite sweet and woody. Lots of the warm and slightly funky tawny port flavors. Very earthy and moldy. Stewed red fruits, but also dried apricots and sugar syrup.
Swallow:
The finish is still quite intense, but more in a warming way than it’s sharp. Licorice, dried fruits, leather and tawny port. Also, that dunnage warehouse again.
My thoughts are that this was not necessarily a bad cask, but just a very weird one. Maybe the guys who bottled it thought it would be more logical to make it a truly weird one to mask the not-so-good sherry cask. Maybe…
Anyway, it’s not the best Sprinbank 21 I ever had. It’s not the best Springbank I’ve had this year. It’s quite decent though, although I’m happy I had ten centiliters, and not a whole bottle. I would finish it, but not in an overly enthusiastic way.
I’ve been putting this post off for almost three weeks now. Mostly because I’ve had no idea what to write about this time around. Maybe I should start by reflecting a bit on 2017. A year with big ups and big downs, but those are on a rather personal level, so I’ll not bore you with those.
On January 1st, 2017, I did write a post like this too, and I made some minor plans that are quite funny to read back a year and a bit later:
Of the last bottle share I did with Mezcal, I’ve not tried any drinks yet.
Still the same. I’ve had one glass of Mezcal in the past 12 months, I guess. I like the stuff but, as you might be able to tell from me not drinking it, not as much as I like whisky.
I do think I’ve downsized my sample collection a little bit, which is a good thing. Some had been sitting there for ages, and should have been drunk years ago. Because of our third kid being born in May we had to shuffle rooms and occupation of them in our house. This resulted in me having a wee room for my whisky and other hobby and putting all samples on a shelf instead of in boxes. I even found a sample of Port Ellen and a Brora! I completely forgot I had those…
Since the summer of 2016 I’ve restarted playing Magic: The Gathering and that’s been picking up a bit of steam in 2017 too. Since that happened I am dividing attention between whisky and that a little bit. This results in me not spending as much on whisky and not spending as much attention on whisky either. The not spending attention has gotten me out of the loop of some releases and events, but since there’s stuff happening on a daily basis I don’t think I really mind.
Another realization I made in 2017 is that I’m spending too much money on beer (yet again). I really love beer, but with a bottle being drunk in one go, it is a hobby just as expensive as whisky. This results in one of my few New Year’s Resolutions: buy less beer.
I checked my Untappd profile and found that I have had 400 unique NEW beers in 2017. That means I spent a couple of bucks on a bottle of beer every single day of the year, and then some. With the amount of beer I still have lying around and the amount of whisky that I plan to taste/drink, this is quite ridiculous, so I’ve set a goal of not having more than 250 this year. That should make quite a difference, I think.
To summarize all of the ramblings above, what I’m going to try and do in 2018 is experience more and spend less. I’ve got a boat load of whisky, beer and other booze. Let’s try to go through that a bit more before I start spending on more of the same all the time. Finishing bottles from my shelves. Opening what I already have instead of buying new. Actually checking which beers are good for drinking that I’ve been storing in our crawl space for a while. Things like that.
Oh, and go to Scotland a few times. I can’t wait for April!
Some other findings from 2017:
BrewDog’s Lone Wolf products are a deception, so far.
I don’t like Sake
The Whiskybase Gathering is awesome
I should spend more time in Scotland for the country
Just a bit of bragging, now. Yesterday the annual Bottoms Up tasting at De Whiskykoning took place. All kinds of scraps from his tasting room were available for one last hurrah!
Of course, you have to be suspicious of things that are too good to be true. Sometimes he puts something else in a great bottle, or puts something great in an average bottle.
Point in case: The bottle of Talisker Port Ruighe contained Talisker 30, and the Port Ruighe was put in the hit-or-miss sample bottles strewn around the table.
A rather good AnCnoc, very likeable and a nice warming up!
Epic stuff, this.
This probably contained something else, but I think it was still Springbank…
A very solid and earthy Clynelish
From an unmarked sample bottle: 30 year old brandy from Jerez
Not very good.
Tasting leftovers in a tiny cask. A shit whisky.
Yup! Very good and rather recognizable as Irish.
The actual Talisker Port Ruighe wasn’t very good.
This one, however. This one was not to be topped during the afternoon.
Okay, but not great.
I was very enthusiastic about this one! A very solid Pulteney!
20 guys can do a lot of harm to a table of bottles.
In the end I had some random other stuff, but after the Talisker things started to wind down. It felt a bit futile to keep rummaging around for something else that was in that league.
Funnily enough, when this got released in December, there was a mad scramble to get our hands on a bottle. My Bottle Share group on Facebook was mad about getting one and links to UK webshops were posted as soon as someone found stock.
Now, we’re a couple of weeks further along and when I just checked Whiskybase there’s quite some available stock in quite some countries. This stock, however, can be sub-divided into two categories: shops in countries that don’t ship abroad and shops that are trying to get some extra profit out of the fans by upping their prices.
Bottles in the first set are between 80 and 100 euros, and some shops in The Netherlands and Belgium have gone up to 140/150 euros a pop. So far, I’ve managed to get my bottles (one for sharing, one for later) somewhere between those prices. Luckily.
Anyway, I’m not sure if Springbank’s Local Barley range needs introduction. It’s a cycle of five whiskies released over five years (more or less). The first one was a 16 year old and my whisky of last year. The second was 11 and now there’s a 10 year old. There’s two more coming in, I guess, 2018 and 2019.
The reputation Springbank is cleverly using is that of their ancient Local Barley bottlings from the mid-sixties, bottled around the millennium at some 35 years old. Those were stunning and way out of the league of mere mortals by now.
Luckily, at semi-decent prices, they’ve managed to not botch up the reputation the range had built by releasing at least two very good ones. I hope to review last year’s 11 year old soon-ish.
The 10 year old, distilled in 2007 and bottled at the end of 2017 clocks in at a whopping 57.3%. Not there are no stronger whiskies out there, but Springbank has a tendency of having cask strength bottles at lower than expected ABVs, over the last couple of years.
Also, as with a lot of Springbank releases nowadays, the bottling consists of 70% bourbon casks, and 30% sherry casks.
Sniff:
Image from Whiskybase
On the nose there’s a mountain of barley, but it’s rather quiet at first. It takes a bit of time to get going. Somehow, there’s a promise of a big and oily whisky. Some vanilla crumble, and strangely (never had this before) some thistle oil. Thistles, rushes, and other plants you don’t want in your field. Stale bread, toast, and the tiniest whiff of smoke.
Sip:
Very warming and dry, with a very oily mouthfeel. It feels a bit like a mix of thistle oil and a more machine oil flavor. Barley and other ‘wild flowers’. I can imagine flavors like this coming from a kintyre field. As said, oily, big, dry. A touch of vanilla and smoke, with some peppery heat as well.
Swallow:
The finish gets a bit more bright, but it never leaves the oiliness behind. The barley is a bit lighter, as is the sudden hint of dried apple. The warmth of the alcohol lingers, but it doesn’t stay sharp, which it was a bit on the palate. Dry, with hints of oak and white pepper.
In short, this is a cracker. More in line with the 16 year old than with last year’s 11 year old. That might be because last year’s whisky used bere barley instead of more modern varieties. It’s a very big whisky, and due to it being only ten years old there’s not a lot of oak taking up space of the spirit. Big and oily, as you’d expect if you’ve seen the distillery.
I really suggest trying to get one if you’ve not already done so. It’s not cheap for a ten year old whisky, but you’d be supporting a bit of provenance, a kick-ass distillery and proper craft when making whisky.
90/100
Springbank Local Barley 10, 2007-2017, 57.3%, available at widely varying prices. Check Whiskybase
At some blurry point in my personal whisky history I decided it would be a good idea to start collecting something specific. I decided it would be the Lagavulin 12 releases, but more on that in a later post. It also would be all batches of Springbank 12 Cask Strength.
This latter choice was the more viable one, since they’re not overly rare and not overly expensive. However, I decided a while ago that I wouldn’t continue this, mostly because I couldn’t be arsed to take money out of other stuff to buy the Springbanks.
The result of this revelatory decision was that I could use the three bottles I already had in a bottle share to collect some then much needed dough. Also, I could review them on my blog. Because I needed more tasting notes to type out (not…).
The bottle that made me make the initial decision to collect was a 2013 batch that was reviewed here. The ones that follow are a 2012 and 2014 release, batch 5 and 9 respectively.
Sniff:
On the nose there’s a sharp edge with some fiery, flinty notes. It’s rather funky (as it should be) with wet-and-then-dried paper, soil and wood pulp. Some dusty hessian/jute and mushrooms.
Sip:
The palate is very consistent with the nose, and the flavors found make this a rather typical Springbank. At least for the 12 year old Cask Strengths. The sharp edge is gone, and it’s slightly more focused on the funky, mushroom like notes. Still rather dirt-y with notes of wood pulp too.
Swallow:
The finish shows a bit more oak, and in a more typical way too. Not the pulp, but casks. A hint of vanilla shows up, but the mushrooms and dirt are not gone.
Well, this is exactly what you could hope for! I expect a bit of a dirty, lightly sherried Springbank when I open a bottle of the 12 year old Cask Strength and this delivers exactly that. I don’t think there’s much at this price point that is better. Especially when it was released at some 50-60 bucks.
89/100
Springbank 12, Cask Strength, Batch 5, 2012, 52.2%. Available for about 75 euros in Italy
The second on is a bit more careful on the funk. Slightly more cask focused, so to say. There’s still jute and mushrooms, but also some more clear sherry notes, with pecans and walnuts. Some barbecue char, barked pork and a hint of vegetable stock.
Sip:
The palate is quite dry with a lot of oaky texture. The flavor is slightly moldy after a while, with some oaky notes too. Some earthy flavors, with the walnuts and pecans.
Swallow:
The finish is quite gentle and fades rather quickly. There’s nuts and sherry, with oak and soil.
This one is a bit more complicated than the first one. I opened the bottle and am far from disappointed, although I realize it’s not the best of the bunch. Actually, it’s the least impressive of the three Springers. Still, very high quality for the 60 odd euros it cost back in the day.
87/100
Springbank 12, Cask Strength, Batch 9, 2014, 54.3%. Available in the secondary market for little over 90 euros.
My friends Floris and Bram, to some better known as The Whisky Nerds are on a roll. Coming of the high that was their trio of great Inchmurrins, they selected another cask to release in the waning of 2017. This time their pick is a Springbank 21 years old.
I got the tip that I really needed to sit down for this whisky instead of doing a more ‘first impression’ kind of review. This turned out to be a good tip.
Springbank is one of my favorite distilleries and whiskies so I was quite happy to see them bottle a cask of it. I’ve had several different expressions in the past and they generally are awesome drams. Initially I was worried they put the bar too high for themselves. But then again, they want something special…
Sniff:
Image from Whiskybase
At first the nose of this dram starts with a lot of dry barley, and after a few seconds the barley is joined by hints of flint. There’s dry oak with dried apple and other non-tropical orchard fruits. Pear skins, and some chalk. There’s a tiny hint of hessian/jute too, and some saltiness.
After about ten minutes the fruit gets turned down, and it becomes more about the traditional Springbank nose with more hints of barley, grist, oak and some salinity. More coastal, so to say.
After another ten minutes it starts to develop a whiff of smoke and soot.
Sip:
It’s not exactly fierce on the arrival, but it is intense. The dry barley and grist are the main flavors initially. There’s quite a lot of oak too, with some white pepper.
A second sip is slightly more sweet with barley sugar and some gentler warmth. Softer oak, with malt sugars. The heat from the white pepper gets some more flavor and goes to black pepper instead. More fresh apple instead of the dried notes from the nose. Some wood spices too.
The palate keeps developing over time, and there are some more sweet notes after a while. Apricot jam, orange jelly (like in those orange sticks). I’m not getting any peat, but there is a certain sootiness. The greasy stuff on the inside of the fireplace.
Swallow:
The finish is very warming with slightly more earthy flavors. Lots of malt, oak and some mineral notes. Apple, pear and simple syrup. A whiff of black pepper and salt too.
Thijs said it was better than he could have hoped for. He is right. It’s a great combination of the typical Springbank flavors and little extra hints here and there. It truly warrants exporation and patience.
Even though after 21 long years the ABV still is almost 60%, you don’t really notice that and it’s dangerously drinkable. I especially loved the tiny hints of soot combined with the gentle fruitiness.
All in all, a truly great way to start 2018! As with practically all Whisky Nerds bottlings, this is already sold out, even though it clocked in at some 300/325 euros.
Yay! The annual music review for all three people that actually check it! Says cynical me.
Anyway, I’ve been doing this post since the first Christmas since I started blogging, so I just keep at it. ‘Last year’ I only posted this in March because I kept discovering new things during December. That happened mostly because other sites and blogs publish their top 10s, and I listened to a lot of stuff I missed before.
This year is different because I’ve not gotten around to listening to anyone else’s top 10 list yet. I probably have missed things, but I’ve not found that out yet. I hope to start catching up to a lot of podcasts and bookmarked links in January, but with the way things are I sincerely doubt it.
Oh, and a warning. If you’re not into Americana, Folk and/or Country, you can just close this tab and do something else. There’s nothing for you here if that’s the case.
Since a couple of years I’ve been listening to American folk and rock music more and more. Add to that that a lot of the names I had on my radar didn’t release anything or released something that just didn’t grab me as much as I expected.
Among these names are Hiss Golden Messenger, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Laura Marling, The Waifs, Future Islands and some others. Other records were good but the following list were simply better. Think of Valerie June, Ryan Adams, Alt-J, Torres, St. Vincent and The National.
My 2017 on Spotify is a lot longer than that, and I really enjoy each record in there. Maybe the latest additions slightly less since I’ve not really gotten around these yet, but there’s a lot of good music in there.
Anyway, to make a short story not too long, let’s get to my top 10 for the year.
#10: Johnny Flynn – Sillion
Flynn’s voice takes a bit of getting used to, but after some random encounters in playlists I listened to, I started liking it. A lot. It is kind of moody, which I like as you might know.
#9: David Rawlings – Poor David’s Almanack
I first heard of David Rawlings when he joined Gillian Welch on stage in Paradiso a couple of years ago. He’s not overly prolific, and I didn’t really like his record before then. Recently he released a new record and I do like this one! It’s a fairly recent discovery, and to say it’s been on repeat since is exaggeration. It’s been a regularly played one though.
#8: Feist: Pleasures
The only non-country record in my list this year. But it’s Feist and I think I like everything she’s done so far over her carreer. It’s a bit jumpy but thoroughly enjoyable to listen to a lot of times.
#7: Nikki Lane: Highway Queen
A record I really didn’t like at first, somehow. The only reason I listened to it was that on every music channel I follow online it kept popping up. She also headlined a small ‘festival’ in Paradiso in spring and I dismissed it because I didn’t like Nikki Lane. Now I regret I didn’t go.
#6: John Moreland: Big Bad Luv
There was a John Moreland on my list in 2016 too. It seems the man has a lot of things to process through music since he’s been releasing a lot of records. I missed all his shows in The Netherlands this year due to other stuff like being on holiday and having a baby. Luckily, he’s coming back in 2018!
#5: Rhiannon Giddens: Freedom Highway
In a way this is the best record on this list. However, the best doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most enjoyable in my book. This record has stunning lyrics and music and is also sort of significant since Giddens doesn’t shy away from addressing all kinds of wrongs in society.
#4: Sean Rowe: New Lore
If you check the comments in most of Sean Rowe’s Youtube videos, a lot of people came there by watching The Accountant. Somehow I watched The Accountant because of all the comments on Youtube. A good movie, but the music is better.
Mr. Rowe has a bit of a strange voice that takes some getting used to, like Johnny Flynn’s, but when I found a previous record of him on Spotify somehow, I really enjoyed it right away.
We even used a line from the below song in the birth announcement card of our youngest.
And the track that’s used in The Accountant, as closing credits if I’m not mistaken:
#3: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound
Jason Isbell is a champ and has produced some awesome records over the span of his career. Somehow his previous record never made my list, and I think that’s because I found out about it too late. Quite a shame since there’s a few cracking songs on it. This year I didn’t make that omission and The Nashville Sound makes it here.
It’s a bit more pumped up than his previous couple of records, and a bit more ‘American’ too. Just like his show I saw last autumn. Great, but rather ‘American’. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I guess you’d know if you saw it.
#2: Old Crow Medicine Show: 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde
I’m not even going to explain this. It’s Old Crow Medicine Show releasing their take on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. What more could you want?
#1: Courtney Marie Andrews: Honest Life
I’m not even sure when I found this record. What I do know is that when I first heard it I knew this was going to be on this list. The only reason John Moreland was higher on my list according to Spotify (based on songs played) is that he has more songs out, but this is the record I played most over the last twelve months.
I saw her perform live in Amsterdam last summer (Paradiso again) and I absolutely fell in love with her/the music all over again. She’s coming back to Amsterdam in April, which is a shame since there’s no way I’ll be able to make it to this gig. But I’m not going to cancel my trip to Scotland for it…
Based on my list and relistening to a lot of my 2017 playlist I can only conclude that 2017 was a very good year for music I like. However, most of the stuff I really enjoyed came from unexpected and unknown artists.
NB: The only reason Purgatory by Tyler Childers is not on number one is that it’s not officially released in Europe yet. Since I heard the record a couple of times, and saw most of it performed live this summer, I expect that would have at least moved number 2 to 10 down, and maybe number one as well.
Malt Fascination 