Springbank 14 yo 2004 (57.7%, OB ‘Cage’, fresh sherry hogshead, 1 bottle)
I know, I know. Writing notes for these ‘cage’ bottlings is pretty pointless. But they’re often good benchmarks for contemporary Springbank. Colour: amber. Nose: a little closed at first. Lots of damp leaves, bracken, soot and earth. Leaning towards things like dark chocolate and some rather animalistic touches. The ‘Springbankiness’ is a tad shy and buried. With water: some nice notes of bitter orange, salty liquorice, Maggi and a rather punchy herbal quality. Mouth: again rather leafy, bitter and peppery. Lots of cocoa powder, soot, cured meats and some rather salty and savoury meat stock notes. One of these rather typically beefy sherry casks that Springbank seem to have no shortage of. With water: again rather drying, salty, straight and earthy. Some notes of brown bread and sooty cereals emerging now as well. That meaty tone has calmed a little. Some preserved lemons show up as well. Finish: medium and nicely saline and fresh. Comments: I can see why it was a cage bottling and not a single cask. Still good though. Ideal for passing the night in a C-town air bnb.
SGP: 473 - 85 points.

Springbank 19 yo (50.2%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company for Han-She, sherry, bottled 2019)
Han-She is a private whisky club and bar owned by a very nice but offensively youthful chap from Beijing named Bihan Yang. Colour: coppery amber. Nose: it’s a rather sooty and earthy one again, however here you have these lovely additional aromas of cedar wood, unlit cigars, menthol cigarettes and bitter marmalade. Continues with various medical linens and bandages with a good slathering of BBQ sauce. With water: once again the development is in the direction of freshly baked brown breads, dark grains, Scotch broth, light notes of iodine and salty seaweed flakes in ramen. Mouth: again this very meaty and earthy style of sherry. Lots of soot, camphor, smoky bacon, mole sauce, herbal bitters and things like rope and hessian. This impression of coal dust once again. With water: big, bitter, herbal, slightly smoky and full of things like ink, carbon paper, meats, earth, bitter coffee and sack cloth. Also getting peppery and full of smoky chilli notes. Quite impressive. Finish: long, meaty, herbal, bitter and sooty with a medial and deeply earthy aftertaste. Comments: It’s an impressive whisky no doubt. However, I can’t help but feel that these sherry casks are of a somewhat divisive character. Those with an aversion or sensitivity to the more grubby, rough and ready style of sherry will probably find this tough going. There are parts which merit 90 but technically I don’t think it’s quite there overall. Still excellent, boisterous and fun whisky though.
SGP: 473 - 88 points.

Springbank 22 yo 1995/2018 (44.3%, Svenska Eldvatten, cask #498, refill sherry hogshead, 137 bottles)
This new in from those Swedish dudes over at Eldvatten. Colour: deep gold. Nose: very rustic and charming. Lots of roasted nuts, coffee cake, dry earth, walnuts, peanuts, metal polish and some more vegetal hints of grilled asparagus and meaty notes of salty Iberico ham. Mouth: it’s a clean sherry cask. Just extremely nutty and with this rather lean, cured meat vibe. Lots of dry roast peanuts, anthracite, dried herbs, charcoal, sooty qualities and some cocoa powder. Perhaps on the more quirky side of 90s Springbank. Mutton, bouillon stock, boot polish, leather, hessian and oily rags. It lacks a little oomph, but it compensates with a lot of charisma and mechanical schmooze (what?!) Finish: medium, lightly tarry, rather herbal, still pretty sooty and with some final savoury meaty and peppery qualities. Comments: It’s hard to know what to make of these batches sometimes, they can wrong foot you quite easily. Here the sherry is clean but just a tad unusual, although the charm wins out in the end. One to sip from a hip flask after a long day operating a lathe perhaps…?
SGP: 463 - 88 points.

Springbank 26 yo 1992/2019 (47.7%, The Whisky Kingdom & Duckhammers, cask #153b, bourbon barrel, 111 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: oooh. Beautiful and very classical aroma of waxes, pollens, sandalwood, hessian and lamp oil. Also this underlying wispy peat quality all tied up with medicines, chalk and beach pebbles. This lovely triumvirate of coastal, peaty and waxy that the best modern Springbanks possess. Also various dried and crystallised fruits as well. Given time it kind of breaks down further into citronella candles, crushed seashells, ink and some rather scattered minerals. Gorgeous nose! Mouth: totally superb arrival all on bath salts, beach foam, chalk, canvass, waxes, honey, salty mead, putty, dried mint and herbal cough medicines. Mid-era Springbank that displays some unusually floral and fruity touches. Finish: good length. All on hessian, dried seaweed, honey, candied exotic fruits, waxes, sheep wool and hints of wintergreen and old Chartreuse. Comments: I just love this style. The purity, richness and idiosyncrasy of the flavours is terrific. Although, from some angles its typically early 1990s Springbank, while in others it appears a tad more divergent.
SGP: 562 - 91 points.

Springbank 12 yo ‘100 Proof’ (57%, OB, b1996 for UK, rotation ’96/340’)
One of a legendary series of bottlings produced in the mid-1990s for the UK and the USA. Stories abound about these being ‘topped up’ with older stocks, or reduced to bottling strength with older under proof casks. What’s certain is that these batches do contain whisky older than 12 and that they carry a hefty reputation for a reason. Colour: gold. Nose: there is certainly something ‘old Springbank’ about this. The richness and fruitiness of the sherry is immediately striking. Lots of toasted walnuts, dried flowers, Dundee cake, hessian, figs, old Cognac, lightly tarry notes and then more mineral notes of oily rag, wet rock, linens, clay and putty. Things like ink, dried tarragon, game meats and aged pu ehr tea. It’s just another level of depth, taut potency and complexity altogether. With water: gets lighter, leafier, more black tea, tobaccos, menthol, balsamic, walnut oil and pine resin. Mouth: stunningly gamey, meaty, earthy and fruity. Lots of dark stewed fruits, sultanas, raisins, figs and various fruit preserves and jams. Meat broths, waxes, bouillon, umami and black olive paste. There’s also the warmth of English mustard powder and black pepper - punchy and extremely assertive. You could almost add some very grassy virgin olive oil too. With water: pow! Goes pretty ballistic on the complexity side. Immense, controlled and yet diverse with all these different strands of meaty, fruity, waxy, mineral, nutty and even rather coastal now too. Dash it all! Call the anti-maltoporn brigade! Finish: super long, nervously sherried, crystallised fruits, resinous, a kind of fluttering salinity, earthy, peppery, spicy paprika, embrocations and dried mint. Comments: In parts a beast and in parts a gentleman. What’s for sure though is that this is dazzling and compelling whisky that holds your attention on a knife-edge. I think the 50% versions are a notch more stellar, but we are flying undeniably above cloud level here.
SGP: 664 - 94 points.

Springbank 34 yo 1975/2010 (40.5%, OB ‘private cask’, cask #99/165-1)
How many of these private cask label bottlings have there been now? Not sure anyone truly knows, quality can be all over the place in my experience. Colour: orangey gold. Nose: oily rags, highly polished minerals, soot, wee rocks, fabric, pure mineral oil, hessian. It’s not unlike some mid-1990s Springbank but rather lighter and more polished by age. I also get rather a lot of things like tangerine liqueurs, herbal cough medicines, wintergreen, menthol and wee touches of fennel and caraway. Lovely nose, if a tad fragile. Mouth: orange vitamin tablets in soda water and rather a lot of herbs and sooty earthy notes. More minerals, struck flints and salty savoury broths. Again fragile but nicely complex and elegant. Springbank, but on the subtle side. Gets a tad teaish and weak towards the end, a little cardboard. Probably bottled about 4 years too late. Finish: a bit short, on cough medicines, wool, herbs and some breads. Comments: Some parts were extremely attractive but overall it’s over the hill I would say. Still, you get a clear picture of how it would have been a few years earlier which is nice, depending on how masochistic you’re feeling.
SGP: 551 - 85 points.

Springbank 30 yo 1972/2002 (57.8%, Chieftain’s Choice, cask #410, sherry, 576 bottles)
Many great Springbanks from this Chieftain’s series… Colour: orange amber. Nose: tinned fruits in syrup such as apricots, peaches, pineapple and plums. Then lychee, orange liqueur, kumquat and evolving some notes of putty, cocktail bitters, herbal extracts, mint tea and lemon cordial. Explosive but also rather precise and brilliant. Wonderfully nervous, punchy fruitiness. With water: uber fresh! Very coastal, zingy, sharp, citrus and saline with an assortment of dried exotic fruits. Mouth: crystallised fruits, mint leaf, mulchy and earthy tones, raisins and some slightly beefy, meaty notes. Lots of saline liquid seasonings and stocky broth notes. Miso, soy sauce, white pepper, some light medical notes and cough syrup. With water: pow! superbly fruity with a concentrated saline precision. Powerful, umami, earthy, lightly tannic, salty and quivering with tart acidity and fruity freshness. Finish: long, wonderfully herbal, oily, waxy, tart, lemony acidic and fizzing with coastal salinity. Comments: A big salty slap in the face! Totally commands attention with the way it veers between fruits, medicine and seashore. Wonderful and rather specific in style to the early 1970s vintages I would say.
SGP: 753 - 92 points.

Springbank 12 yo (80 proof, OB, ceramic jug, UK, bottled late 1970s)
Colour: straw (I’ve seen darker vattings of this at the same ABV and from roughly the same era so there must be a few variants out there) Nose: what’s funny is how close we are to the 1992. We’re still in this maelstrom of clays, waxes, putty, chalk, beach pebbles, ink and soft peat. Only here there’s a more focused and concentrated layer of exotic fruits draped over everything. Things like melon, papaya, mango and kumquat. Mouth: starts surprisingly soft but then builds beautifully. Syrupy, slightly greasy, oily and fat in texture. Salty, waxy, some citrus peels, chalk and again this rather punchy medical quality. Brilliant distillate! Finish: long, peppery, lemony, medical, chalky, waxy and nicely mineral. Comments: These ceramics can be a bit hit or miss due to storage and the mysteries of OBE, but when they’re good they’re seriously great.
SGP: 653 - 92 points.

Springbank 12 yo (80 proof, OB, UK, bottled late 1970s)
This one will be interesting as it should be very similar liquid bottled very close in time to the ceramic. Colour: pale straw. Nose: drier, fatter, greasier and more towards grassy olive oil, punchy minerals, camphor, sheep wool and a more assertive coastal quality. Lots of petrol, limestone, lemon peel and a drier, more brittle waxiness. This kind of peppery hessian quality. You really feel like this is edging backwards into a different era of production now. Things like ink, carbon paper, soot and seawater. Mouth: totally superb power and control. Wonderfully oily, saline, fat and peppery. Lighter fluid mixed with seawater, black olives and preserved lemons. Again this rather petrolic and mineral quality with hessian and some soft but precise peatiness. Brilliant whisky. Finish: long, salty, lemony and full of canvass, sandalwood ashes, newspaper ink, dried herbs and bandages. Comments: Another world of flavour from a lost era of production in Scotch malt whisky. Even for Springbank this feels like something out of a time warp. But it remains totally stunning and with a gripping freshness, even after these years in bottle.
SGP: 463 - 93 points.

Springbank 39 yo 1969/2008 (57.8%, Chieftain’s, cask #794, butt, 150 bottles)
57.8% at nearly 40 years old? Cannot be a bad omen… Colour: pale gold. Nose: what the hell is this? Smoked banana liqueur mixed with old medicines. It’s not the most complex nose but by Jove it’s stunning! The kind of focused, syrupy and juicy concentration that is to die for. Smoked grapefruit, lemon peel, olive oil, tar, passion fruit, gauze, elastoplasts, embrocations and crushed seashells drizzled with mineral oil. Over time the complexity increases and just becomes rather bamboozling. With water: amazing how it changes direction almost instantly. Gets straighter, more classically dry, mineral, chiselled and taut. Nervous coastal bite, citrus, petrol, waxes and a wealth of tropical fruits. Spellbinding stuff! Mouth: totally amazing arrival! Hot herbal liqueurs mixed with salty old mead, pine resin, some kind of peated olive oil, natural tar liqueur, cough medicine and ancient green Chartreuse! Still this kind of mad banana syrup note running throughout. The anti-maltoporn brigade had better be on speed dial! With water: gah! Utterly stunning with water. Herbal, medical, peaty, salty, resinous, divinely fruity, concentrated and hugely complex. Finish: very long. Stupendously salty, punchy, savoury and tingling with dried exotic fruits, herbal teas, smoked shellfish, tar, medicines and white pepper. Comments: This one began with brilliant but deceptive simplicity and just kind of lumbered forward in a series of surprise explosions of personality and wrong-footing vortexes of complexity. Equal parts jester and genius.
SGP: 663 - 94 points.

Springbank 21yo 1967/1989 (46%, Signatory Vintage, cask #3139, sherry, 600 bottles)
This one was also bottled in the Dun Eideann livery as well. Colour: deep amber. Nose: just stupendous. This kind of super resinous, deep, earthy, concentrated and profoundly complex old school sherry that sits in perfect harmony with the Springbank 60s character. The kind of nose you could sit all afternoon picking out wee aromas from. I’ll simply say: maraschino cherry, black coffee, herbal bitters, natural tar extract, mint julep and toasted fennel seeds. Sublime concentration, depth and balance. Mouth: what’s so striking initially is that it feels bigger and more powerful than 46%. You get this immediate impression of depth, concentration, power and breadth of flavour very similar to that of the nose. There’s a consistency of brilliance from nose to palate that is an indicator of greatness in whisky I think. Chocolate, coffee, tar, dried miner, petrichor and this sublimely herbal, dry turfy old school peat. Also black olives, bitter lemon and caraway. Again, you could go on and on… finish: long, mushroomy, earthy, sooty, peppery, meaty and spicy. Sinew in a velvet glove. Comments: We’re teetering on the edge of 94 here. Everyone should endeavour to try this kind of quality of sherry cask at least once. Even just a sip. It alters your perspective on contemporary sherried whiskies forever.
SGP: 672 - 93 points.

Springbank 1965/1987 (58.7%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #27.6, sherry)
Better just put on my heavy duty tasting trousers… Colour: rosy amber. Nose: there are some of these 1960s mega-Springbanks that are immediate and easy; there’s also these ones. This is rather taut and un-yielding at first nosing. The aromas come very slowly and teasingly: bitter chocolate, prune eau de vie, hessian, cloves, anthracite. Needs time and patience. Things start to unfold after a couple of minutes though. Dried mushrooms, black olives, natural tar, black cherries… things are very quickly getting out of control. Hessian, some kind of chocolatey peat and all manner of herbal bitters, coffee… probably best just call the anti-maltoporn brigade. With water: difficult not to make embarrassing noises now. Rich, decadent and evolving in a profoundly tertiary, umami and complex way. Mouth: as my good friend and Old & Rare collaborator Mr McMillan is fond of saying “shit the bed!” Smoked dark chocolate sauce - if such a thing exists. Almost like liquid leather in texture. Autumnal, meaty, earthy, dense, sinewed and riddled with savoury, salty, medical and earthy complexities. With water: holy moly! Everything as it was but just up several levels in terms of breadth, complexity and immensity. Best stop before we start getting silly. Finish: just endless. Cast your toothbrush into the sea! You won’t be needing it anymore… Comments: I had it at 94 but water just propels it to another level entirely. You need to be careful tasting these old SMWS Springbanks, they can send you to a place of gibbering ridiculousness.
SGP: 463 - 95 points.

Springbank 30 yo (43%, OB for Japan, 1980s)
Needless to say, a super rare old bottle. Colour: deep gold. Nose: really another world. A whole beehive full of honey, waxes, pollens, dried wildflowers, herbal teas and various precious hardwoods. Rather like if you were miniaturised and allowed to clamber around inside an old acoustic guitar - I think. There’s this kind of globulous, syrupy fruitiness; coal smoke; cedar and sandalwood; and eventually a little nervous coastal freshness. Pretty hypnotic and beautiful old school malt whisky. Mouth: tensely salty but with this rather huge and fatty waxiness. Almost waxy in texture with gooey honey, old hessian, beeswax, dried mint, eucalyptus balms and some ancient cough medicines. The savoury and saltiness are thrilling, while there’s also a myriad of dried exotic fruits at play as well. Like chewing on dried mango when along comes black olives and dried seaweed. Finish: beautifully long but never meandering. Stays focused and on point. Salinity, dried herbs, olive oil, camphor, fragrant peat smoke and more waxiness again. Comments: We’re flying about as high as we expected with this one. Not a surprise but a profoundly pleasurable dram. An old school Campbeltown hug in a glass!
SGP: 662 - 93 points.

Springbank 8 yo (43%, OB, Sutti import, circa 1970)
Colour: white wine. Nose: It’s this style that recalls the late 70s UK 12yo from the glass bottle. All purity, minerals, waxes, putty, metal polish and chalky medicines. Lime, cough syrups, spearmint and sandalwood. There’s also these wee coastal and lemony qualities that nod into the future towards more contemporary Springbank styles. Considering this was probably distilled in the early 1960s I would say that’s a pretty impressive and resilient link of DNA. There a funny duality of fragility and fragrance alongside crispness and power about the nose. Compelling and very beautiful. Mouth: pow! Hugely impressive arrival. You would think it was above 46%. Mineralic, vegetal, copper, oily rags, tool boxes, hessian and various cooking oils. Notes of gorse, putty, anthracite and pine resin. Unusual and beautifully old school. Finish: surprisingly long, warming, peppery, slightly bitter and herbal with these notes of marjoram and thyme. Comments: Fresh sherry or tired refill; natural strength or 43%; old or young: these old Springbanks can just seem indomitable. But this is what happens when you focus on making incredible distillate - you strip away the necessity for active wood to cover a dearth of personality.
SGP: 462 - 92 points.

Dunaverty 12 yo Pure Malt (43%, Eaglesome Ltd, circa 1970) 
Eaglesome was the name of the shop in Campbeltown owned by Hedley Wright which would later become Cadenhead. This series also featured an 8yo and is well known to shelter Springbank. Colour: pale gold. Nose: metal polish, natural tar, soot, embrocations, crushed seashells, ink. As ever: it’s a nose that just screams ‘Springbank’. Like a lot of these really old bottlings where the distillate is starting to get back towards the late 1950s, the character is more about minerals, petrol, mechanical oils, drier and sharper coastal attributes and a wonderful core of purity. Mouth: like the 8yo, this is more about damp grains, soot, hessian, ink, dried herbs, earthy vegetal tones and medical embrocations. These chalky, flinty and beach pebble notes come through as well. Nothing tastes like this today. Finish: good length, rather a lot of oily sheep wool, camphor, medical embrocations, chalk, iodine and some grippy cereal notes. Comments: Perhaps not as stellar as some other older Springbanks, but we’re still flying high and this is wonderful wee historical benchmark of distillery character from this era.
SGP: 452 - 91 points.