Springbank 14 yo 2003/2017 (57.1%, OB for 30th Anniversary of Cadenhead Edinburgh shop, ex-Guadeloupe rum barrel, 186 bottles)
This seems like a good jumping off point. I admit Guadeloupe rum is a tad scary, but this being full term maturation it could be ok… Colour: pale gold. Nose: slightly austere at first nosing, grass, chalky medicines, hessian, sunflower oil and some encroaching mechanical notes like WD40 and bicycle chains - I suppose that must be the rum speaking. It’s not jarring or loud in any way which is good news I think. With water: easy, lean, mineral, lightly medical and feeling all quite oily and gently coastal. Keeps this slight chalky edge which retains freshness well. Mouth: plenty coastal Springbank juiciness! Very oily, lemony, briny and fatty but also still with these medicinal and mechanical accents. I think in this instance the rum has reached a kind of ‘full integration’ which is great news and works very well. Some cactus, sandalwood, salted honey, brine and camphor. With water: indeed, the oiliness is more emphatic now. Superb salinity, pepperiness (almost Taliskerish) minerals, some herbal infused olive oil, and actual olives in brine too. Some salty liquorice and more sandalwood. Wonderfully fresh, vivid and coastal. Finish: Long and focussed on medicines, gauze, soft tarry notes and wee mechanical things like brake fluid or oily old rags. Comments: I have to admit, this was something of a surprise. I had it around 88 but then water really propelled it forwards. Definitely bring your pipette to this party! And the rum is really pristinely integrated, great and worthy selection for an Edinburgh whisky institution.
SGP: 463 - 90 points.

Springbank 18 yo (46%, OB, rotation 2019)
I’m told this batch is composed of 88% bourbon and 12% ex-port wood. Colour: bright straw. Nose: quite elegant at first, wet rocks, sheep wool, carbon paper, sunflower oil. Also this familiar, gentle medicinal profile which includes crushed aspirin, gauze, bandages and rather subtle embrocations. I’d also add that it’s nicely mineral and fresh. Mouth: a little more grizzly than the nose suggested, some rather farmyard qualities and then it swings back towards honey, heather beer, miso, ink, waxes and mineral oil. Extremely easy and I would say pretty well balanced. Lots of medicine again, more cooking oils - olive oil now - gentle notes of seawater, herbal ointments, putty and hessian. Finish: medium and with a lot of medical, mineral and coastal flavours in the aftertaste. Comments: Perhaps not as thrilling as previous batches but this is still devastatingly confident whisky. And I love that it really feels like ‘pure Springbank’. Blind I wouldn’t have spotted any port lurking within. I think something the good folk at Springbank don’t get enough credit for is their skill at putting these kinds of batches together and balancing these different wood types.
SGP: 562 - 90 points.

Springbank 24 yo 1994/2019 (46.2%, OB for UK, sherry hogshead, 294 bottles)
This one caused quite a stir when it came out I believe, although I think that was more to do about the predictable scramble for bottles and resulting tsunami of disappointment that ensued. Anyway… Colour: amber. Nose: expressively earthy and full of toasted nuts at first. Peanut brittle, waxed canvass, sultana, mushroom broth, camphor, linseed oil and soy sauce. I have to say, this is impressively fresh, clean and full of old school, sherried richness that you don’t find too often with Springbank’s sherry casks. Lots of lean mineral qualities and motor oil emerge in time, while also getting more towards leaf mulch and tobaccos. Very impressive! Mouth: ah ok, here’s where it falls down a bit I think. Feels a little too faded and ‘light’, rather a lot of balsamic, stewed fruits, some light acidity, a few fruity medicines and strawberry scented pipe tobacco. Very nice but you feel it has been captured on the way down rather than on the way up. Still nicely nutty and a bit chocolatey and overall very clean and still showing some lovely earthy qualities. Finish: medium, earthy, nutty, mulchy, oily and with more wee notes of old vinegars and herbal wines. Comments: The nose was gorgeous, but I feel the palate crumbled slightly. Now, it’s still a very quaffable old Springbank. But I would say one for the tumbler rather than the copita. Serge takes the lead…
SGP: 652 - 87 points.

Springbank 24 yo 1993/2018 (52.7%, SCOMA 40th Anniversary, cask #14, refill sherry hogshead, 300 bottles)
In case you don’t know, SCOMA is a legendary and very influential whisky shop in Germany that was responsible for importing many great and important names (including Springbank and Cadenhead) back in the era before single malt enthusiasm was widespread. Indeed, you could argue they played a pivotal role in European whisky enthusiasm. Colour: deep gold. Nose: it’s certainly one of these more ‘left-field’ 1993 Springbanks. Lots of flinty notes, mineral oil, graphite, ink and stewed fruits like sultana and prune. It evolves more along this profile with more earthiness, leaf mulch, tobacco, gun oil and hints of various brown breads and dark grains. It’s definitely getting more recognisably ‘Springbanky’ with time. With water: dried mint, ink, miso, umami broths, animal furs, turmeric, dried flowers, waxes. Quite complex and individualistic. Mouth: nice arrival, very clean but quite punchy and powerful. Very bready, earthy, mineral and slightly gamey and saline. Salted almonds, game salami, rye bread, dried tarragon, mineral oil and coal dust. A fascinating ‘teeter’ between weird early 90s and more the assertive, classical style they were transitioning to at the time. Also, it should be noted, this is a very good sherry cask. With water: beautifully complex and ‘broad’ now. Mushrooms, wild herbs, flowers, nuts, breads and more mineral, medical and rather emphatic oily things like camphor, vapour rubs and herbal cough medicines. Really vibrant and superbly fresh now. Finish: long, wonderfully mineral, nutty, saline, oily, herbal and medical. Extremely Springbanky and brilliantly fresh and complex. Comments: It’s like we began in 1993 and ended up at 1995 within the space of the same whisky. Terrific and fascinating distillate in a top notch sherry cask. I’m very happy SCOMA could find such a fun and enjoyable wee glory for their 40th! Great selection folks.
SGP: 473 - 92 points.

Springbank 27 yo 1993/2020 (51.3%, Whiskybroker for It’s All About Springbank, cask #26, refill bourbon hogshead, 200 bottles)
How very funny that bottlings are now being done for themed Facebook groups. What a time to be alive! Colour: bright straw. Nose: extremely pure and at the same time with this typical ‘unusualness’ of 93 Springbanks. Lots of canvass, bailed hay, cooking oils, funny old medicines, herbal liqueurs, chalk, putty, waxes, hot clay, aged mead and yellow flowers. Highly characterful whisky, in the best sense. With water: really doubles down on chalk, fabrics, pebbles, flints, lanolin, paraffin and white coastal flowers. Gorse, pollens and olive oil too. Mouth: pow! Superbly lean and medicinal. Herbal medicines, beach pebbles, waxes, citronella candles, oily cereals, mineral oils, camphor and a nicely salty peatiness. Wonderfully flinty, oily, lightly vegetal and showing many wee medical embrocations and things like fermenting lemons and brine. With water: lemon cough drops, linseed oil, horseradish, camphor, tar, bandages, seawater, preserved lemons… terrific! Finish: long, briny, lemony, oily, medicinal and waxy. Also wee notes of salty honey and dried herbs like thyme. Comments: I’ve just checked and I am indeed a member of the IAAS group on Facebook. Guys, please send 6 bottles to Whiskyfun HQ, Flipper Street, Leith… Anyway, terrific selection. I just loved the purity and the freshness of this one. There’s much been said about these slightly more usual 93s but perhaps all they needed was time? This one was close to being 93 points, but we don’t do partial scores here at WF (my eyes are not yet orange and my hat not yet Panamanian) so 92 it remains!
SGP: 462 - 92 points.

Springbank 21 yo (100 proof, OB, UK, circa 1970)
Bottled around 1970 so should be distilled in the very early 1950s or before. And don’t forget 100 proof in the UK = 57.1%. This is bottle I’ve been chasing and dreaming about for years. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: really another era of whisky production. This rather fat and greasy nose that feels almost viscerally textural. Clay, petrol, oily sheep wool, lanolin and some pure, brutal and pretty chalky medical aromas. Develops the most astoundingly pure medical aroma with the leanest of peat profiles. Cereals, chimney soot, kiln air and the rather fermentary note of distillery wash and carbolic acidity. It’s also rather tangy with things like horseradish, mustard powder and various shades of ground pepper. Humbling and pretty astonishing whisky. With water: the very definition of purity in malt whisky. Putty, clay, ointments, embrocations, raw seawater, petrol, mineral salts and bandages. Mouth: immense arrival. Camphor, metal polish, soot, waxes, tar, iodine, peat, crushed seashells and the most brutal, raw and powerful medical embrocations imaginable. Utterly uncompromising, direct and powerful whisky. Unlike anything else. Cereals, chalk, acidity, flint smoke, ink, fabrics and paraffin. Another whisky that you could just go on with forever. With water: astonishing. Extraordinary. A Venn diagram of medicine, salinity and waxiness with a clarity of personality and a level purity, precision and power that is heart-stopping. Finish: long, bone-dry, austere but also charismatic in the extreme and still touching on these core aspects of purity, medicine and raw, controlled power. Comments: 21 years old and pale as a young Chablis. What’s kind of sad about this is that today this is an almost ideological clarion call of a whisky: the epitome of sculpted distillate, paired back wood and time. But back when it was bottled it was probably just what was available at time of requirement. This is what I talk about when I say ‘old style’ whisky. The closest to this I can think of is 1960s era Clynelish, although this has its own, rather brutal and unflinching style of precision, purity and power. In the end, it stands solitary as its own thing. A poetic old whisky that leaves you speechless with its singular and monolithic style of beauty.
SGP: 464 - 96 points.

Springbank 50 yo 1919/1970 (66.3 proof, OB for UK)
There seems to be a fair bit of confusion about these bottles out there, not helped by the existence of the tall calligraphy label bottle which now sells for ‘houses’ or multiples thereof and various conflicting information about cask numbers and overall numbers of bottles. Not to mention the existence of a number of refills and fakes of this one now. However, I’m confident about the origins of this sample. Colour: gold. Nose: unquestionably an ancient style of malt whisky - we’re really more in the realms of Victorian distilling with this one. That is to say deeply scented with pure waxes, metal polishes, vapour rubs, herbal cough medicines, coal scuttles dust, old cracked leather, sheep wool oils and many deep and compelling mechanical and oily complexities. Lots of dry medical ‘vaporous’ aromas with many dried our wee herbal and liqueur-ish touches. Also old pressed wildflowers kept within very old books. Some cedar wood cigar boxes and various wee mineral oil notes and hints of animal furs and grease. Complex despite being only 37.8% abv. Mouth: dusty initially, very herbal and focussed on bouillon stocks, salty old umami broths, dried out waxes and things like old boot and metal polishes. More impressions of sheep wool and a lot of camphor, hessian and putty. Almost painfully old style; a complete departure from almost anything to do with modern whisky. Indeed, these animalistic and ‘fatty’ attributes being to rise. Barbour grease, more mineral oil, rapeseed oil and hints of natural tar. There’s sweetness too, but it’s like some very leathery and salty aged mead mixed with ancient Sauternes. Finish: medium, which is impressive really, you do feel it has perhaps lost some steam (did it really have ‘steam’ to begin with when bottled?) but there’s a lot of dry earthiness, dusty pollens, ink, bone dry herbs such as tarragon and wee touches of fennel, medicine and this persistent mineral/waxy aspect. Comments: The perfect example of a whisky where the technical score and the emotional score are an ocean apart. I think it’s safe to say that this was left too long in the cask, but at the same time it retains a very vivid impression of an utterly different era of ingredients, process and people. And I would still add, most importantly, that despite these slightly weaker parts, it remains a deeply pleasurable and fascinating whisky to drink.
SGP: 462 - 88 points.

Springbank 1972/1991 (59.0%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #27.17)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: it’s surprisingly close to some refill matured mid-90s examples in some ways with these big notes of soft green fruits mixed with waxes, seawater, olive oil and camphor. Extremely pure, rather medical, punchy and very coastal. Pristine distillate! With water: just exquisitely chiselled, powerful, pure and saline. Raw petrol soaked into sheep wool, hessian, paraffin, ink and still a few glimmers of green and yellow fruits - although they lean more towards the exotic now. Mouth: wow! Petrol mixed with seawater and lemon juice and then smoked. Some particularly saline cured meats, serrano ham etc, and also mint julep, iodine, citronella wax, tar, very grassy olive oil and many sharp, very precise medicines and embrocations. Fermenting honey, aged mead and sandalwood, some dried seaweed flakes in ramen broth and pure, briny pickling juices. Amazing! With water: stunning! Immensely dense in texture, thick, fat, gloopy waxes, salted heather honey, lemon oil, tar, vapour rubs and herbal cough syrups. Majestic! Finish: wonderfully long and full of this particular saline honey quality, beach pebbles, chalk, peat, waxes, medicines and herbs. Comments: We don’t know these vintages as well as their 60s siblings I think, but it seems these early 70s ones, while different, can be no less stunning. This one was just devastating in its power, focus and depth of concentration. Quite simply, some of the greatest distillate ever made.
SGP: 464 - 94 points.

Springbank (?) 26 yo 1969/1995 (51.7%, Signatory Vintage Decanter, sherry, 790 bottles)
Colour: light amber. Nose: bam! A whole punned of apricots and peaches stewed in some luscious old Armagnac. Prunes in juices, figs, strawberry jam, ancient balsamic and a full bodega of rancio. Pretty exquisite stuff and almost certainly some glorious old 60s Springbank. Wonderfully leafy, elegantly earthy and harmoniously fruity - depth, concentration and balance all in check. With water: huge now! Bags of shoe polish, old leather, game meats and rather hefty old school medicines. Lots of old ointments, pressed flowers and herbal cough syrups. Some aspects also really converge beautifully on old Cognac territory with these specific peachy, dark fruity rancio aspects. Mouth: stunningly dense, darkly fruity, earthy and mineral. Full of this leafy and very mulchy style of sherry riddled with tobaccos, hessian and stewed dark fruits. Also leather, game meats and freshly ground coffee. Moving more towards savoury umami and meaty tones over time. Textbook, exquisite old stuff from Campbeltown. With water: herbal bitters now, of the cocktail variety. Brown bread, banana fruit loaf, bitter dark chocolate, kirsch and more of these punchy, herbal liqueur and medical qualities. Some wonderfully bitter Seville orange marmalade and various exotic spices and teas. Finish: Superbly long, resinous, nervous salty sherry, olive oils, camphor, hessian and many more wee herbal touches. Comments: I’ll be damned if this isn’t that 69 Springbank. Totally stunning stuff!
SGP: 662 - 93 points.

Dalwhinnie 8 yo (40%, OB, UK, early 1980s)
A somewhat forgotten about iteration of Dalwhinnie from before the days of the 15yo and the Classic Malts. Colour: gold. Nose: rather nice but feels a tad biscuity and tea-ish, which to me is a sort of low abv/caramel/old bottle vibe. Now behind that there’s also some pleasing notes of shoe polish, a little peat, some putty and a little malt extract sweetness. Mouth: definitely a bit flat at this strength and you can really feel this rather sickly caramel spectre rising up swiftly. Still more sweet digestive biscuits, sooty notes, metal polish and a vaguely rooty and earthy but still pretty light peat. Some cooking oils and roast root vegetables in honey. Finish: short, buttery, biscuity and slightly fatty - indeed Dalwhinnie did used to be a slightly ‘fuller’ distillate. Comments: This is one of quite a few older official bottlings from this era which are fun and ‘instructive’ to taste but they by no means set the world alight.
SGP: 452 - 74 points.

Dalwhinnie 16 yo (43%, Gordon & MacPhail for Sestante, 1980s)
Sestante, remember them? Colour: gold. Nose: waxes and many kinds of polishes: shoe, furniture, metal etc. Linseed oil, putty, canvass and some gentle notes of old herbal liqueurs. Very find and very much ‘old school’. With a little time it evolves nicely towards honeys and tinned fruits while still remaining charmingly unsexy. Mouth: very good, lots of olive old, menthol tobacco, waxes, putty, lime pith, orange marmalade and generally beautiful old school flavours. Some herbs and medicines arrive in time. It just misses a few notches of richness that a higher ABV would have delivered. Now, it’s still dangerously quaffable with all this liberally scattered honey and wax everywhere. Finish: medium, biscuity, sweet, waxy, heathery, honeyed and with some nice herbal tea notes. Comments: A fine drop that feels rather old fashioned in both bottling style and flavour. A few degrees more and it would probably have reached 90 quite easily. Feels decidedly like good, old school, ‘honest’ malt whisky - certainly more ‘honest’ than rebottling old Macallans into lamp shade decanters. But that’s another story.
SGP: 662 - 85 points.

Dalwhinnie 20 yo 1962/1982 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice)
One of the great travesties of whisky in my humble view is that G&M didn’t bottle this series at a higher strength. Thanks again to Mark from Cheaper By The Dram for this sample. Colour: pale gold. Nose: really up a gear from the Sestante in terms of waxiness, metal polish, soot and general fatty oiliness. Stunningly mineral, greasy, mechanical and at the same time full of honey, pollens, vapour rubs and camphor. There’s also these wonderfully fresh notes of wildflowers, tinned peaches and some dried apricot. Mouth: indeed, the strength kind of hurts it here, superbly medical, biscuity, rich, bready, oily and herbaceous but also a few wee hints of cardboard enter into the fray and flatten things a little. Still some glimmers of cereal, putty and lemon infused olive oil. Finish: medium, waxy, pretty herbal, rather honeyed and with a nice lemon rind note and plenty of soft teaish qualities. Comments: Such a frustrating whisky in some respects. The nose was totally beautiful, whereas on the palate you immediately you feel it has been harpooned by the bottling ABV, and probably not a little caramel as well. Still, fascinating to think there was ever a time where it was considered acceptable to treat a 1962 20yo Dalwhinnie in such a way. Now, having said all that, it’s still a highly delicious old highland dram - you just can’t help but imagine what it would have been like above 46% for example.
SPG: 562 - 87 points.

Benrinnes 23 yo 1995/2019 (51.1%, Cadenhead ‘Small Batch’, 3 hogsheads, 708 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: honeys, herbs and breads! Direct, rather pure and extremely characterful. There’s also a pretty emphatic ‘malted barley’ quality sitting rather weightily underneath everything. Not super complex, but definitely rather super (Angus, get a grip!) With water: there’s a more defined spiciness now with rye bread, cinnamon and white pepper. Some waxed baking parchment and cooked cereals. Mouth: a notch lighter than the nose might have suggested but still pretty great with lots of freshly baked croissant and white bread, honey glaze, dried apricots, herbal teas and things like white flowers and a hint of lychee. With water: more of this freshly baked and glazed patisserie vibe. Some furniture polish, malt extract and a little vanilla custard. Finish: good length, a little fresher and greener with more natural barley sweetness and a rather juicy aftertaste - whatever that means! Comments: It’s to be wondered why Benrinnes isn’t more of a ‘thing’. It’s very often terrific distillate. A little more complexity would have propelled this one past 90; maybe time in bottle will achieve that in this instance.
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Benrinnes 1974/1988 (56.7%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #36.5)
1974 was supposedly the first year of Benrinnes’s dalliance with partial triple distillation, which remained until 2007. Colour: gold. Nose: very immediate and appealing notes of apricot jam, flower honey, figs in syrup, soft waxes and things like green tea, lemon peel and sandalwood. One of these rather old school, emphatic distillates that feels kind of ‘highlands’ in character. With water: big impression now of hardwood resins, furniture wax, linseed oil, hessian and oily sheep wool. All the good stuff basically. Mouth: superb arrival, all on olive and mineral oils, putty, lime curd, more waxes, shoe leather, tea tree oil and other funny ‘tertiary stuff’. Rather earthy, oily, waxy, a nice herbal bitterness and excellent weight in the mouth. With water: pine sappy, mineral, extremely fatty and with a palpably gooey waxiness now. Still these wee subtler notes of heather flower, honeycomb, pollens and a light sootiness. Rather a lot of cough medicine now too. Finish: long, satisfying peppery, oily, still this wee bitter herbal quality and a rather rooty earthiness. Comments: Terrific old school malt that showcases the wonderful ‘fatness’ that Benrinnes can often display when ‘on form’. I wonder how much of this character can be ascribed to the distillation technique versus the worm tubs? Although, I suspect there were quite a few other ‘things’ going on back in 1974 that contributed to this final character. Either way, this was a real treat!
SGP: 562 - 91 points.

Benrinnes 21 yo 1974/1995 (55%, Signatory Vintage for USA)
Love love love this series of labels by Signatory. Although, I find it curious that they put notably less info on their US market releases than the UK ones. Interestingly, this one was distilled in the same month as the SMWS, so quite likely a sibling cask. Colour: deep gold. Nose: very different to the SMWS! This is much grassier, greasier and rather more austere. Lots more clay, anthracite, earth, dried leaf mulch, kilned pottery, very lightly medical notes of aspirin and petrichor (damp forest) notes. Quite a departure from the SMWS, but still pretty excellent. With water: these medicinal and spicy aspects are accentuated now. More medicines, ginger wine, camphor, hessian and still a little grassy olive oil. Mouth: ok, back towards the SMWS one now, more fruit jams, exotic fruit teas, waxes, pollens and things like old leather, black pepper and even some vegetal hints including horseradish. Indeed, the whole is rather punchy, peppery and warm. Big, hefty and a pretty textural whisky. With water: rather classical development now with more menthol tobacco, eucalyptus resin, herbal toothpaste, mouthwash, cough mixtures, mineral oil, vapour rubs and more hessian and wax. Finish: long and hugely mentholy and medicinal. Bitter herbs, more green ginger wine, bandages, cocktail bitters and some sharper green herbs like parsley. Comments: Similarities and differences. This one is great, but it’s a tad more monolithic and powerful than the SMWS. Now, in all honesty, I had kind of expected the Signatory to triumph.
SGP: 472 - 90 points. 

Glenlivet 8 yo (70 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, early 1970s)
Colour: light amber. Nose: a super soft, easy and extremely ‘G&M’ style of old school sherry. Bags of leather, truffle, game meat, mushrooms, tobaccos and rancio. Also quite a few layers of tropical fruits, coconut and umami seasonings. Given blind I might just as well have said 21 years old. Mouth: just gorgeous, leathery, bright, fruity, walnutty, earthy, densely rancio-heavy sherry. Some mint leaf, sultanas, fig syrup, a little cocoa, strawberry wine, walnut oil, putty, camphor, herbal resins… It’s got the full kit! Finish: medium and pretty concentrated on chocolate, earth, roasted chestnuts, figs and herbs. Comments: Hard not to be bowled over by this humble wee beauty. One of those old bottlings where you just can’t help but wonder about the veracity of the age statement. The strength also doesn’t feel too low here, the fatness of the distillate and heft of the sherry add more than enough stamina to carry the lower abv.
SGP: 661 - 91 points.

Glenlivet 12 yo 2007/2019 (66.3%, Signatory for The Whisky Exchange, cask #900171, 1st fill sherry hogshead, 309 bottles)
The ABVs on this parcel of casks are always pretty scary, but quality generally seems to be high. Colour: orangey amber. Nose: hot yes, but within that there’s quite a lot of spiced orange liqueur, marmalade, hardwood resins, putty and a little Turkish delight. Although I do also feel a wee bit of bite from the oak. One of these rather effective but assertive modern sherry casks. Goes on with some pencil shavings, green pepper and boiled lime sweets. In time it also becomes a little more floral and showing some red fruits. Lots to enjoy within this admittedly very modern style. With water: understandably lighter and revealing a little more in the way of marzipan, treacle and spices like ginger and cinnamon. Mouth: ooft. I’m tempted to write ‘notes of my own dissolved tooth enamel’ but I wouldn’t do such a thing. Quite a bit of wood shaving, black tea, pink peppercorns and hints of pot pourri and black coffee. With water: more of these notes of resins, black tea and hardwoods. Fir wood, sandalwood - lots of wood! Also spiced orange marmalade, cloves, nutmeg, orange cordial and some fruit chutneys. Finish: rather long and little more towards dark fruits in syrup, cured meats and black office coffee. Comments: Quite a bit going on here and a fair bit of interesting evolution, but the wood is teetering on the brink of being too much for my taste. Not sure it wouldn’t have been better bottled at a lower ABV? Water is certainly obligatory here. Funny how the SGP is the same as the G&M 8yo but they remain worlds apart.
SGP: 661 - 84 points.

Glenlivet 22 yo 1973/1995 (56%, Signatory Vintage for USA, sherry)
Love, love, love these old ‘inkpot’ dumpies. Colour: amber. Nose: quite a world of difference again, really all on leather, chocolate, roasted nuts, camphor, pollens, dried strawberries and cured meats. Also a fair bit of coffee, tobacco and some fig jam and dates. Deep, dark and very ‘old school sherry’. With water: much more peppery and spicy, some ginger, dried chilli, biltong, roast chestnuts and hessian. Mouth: bitter dark chocolate melted down with strawberry jam, more old leather, pipe tobacco, beef stock, black pepper and a few glugs of strong herbal teas. Rather rooty, slightly medical and very earthy. With water: still quite a bit of hot pepper, smoked chilli, smoked herbs, more leather, camphor, a glimmer of cereal and some sort of spiced treacle cake. Finish: long, leather, chocolatey, peppery, gamey and very earthy and quite dry. A rather mineral side emerges. Comments: Quality is very high, as expected, but some parts remain a tad too ‘rough and ready’ to get over the 90 hurdle in my view.
SGP: 562 - 88 points.

Glenlivet 35 yo 1966/2002 (68.6%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society #2.43, sherry)
What was that I was saying only a couple of notes ago about scary ABVs? Colour: amber. Nose: well, this actually rum. Deep and highly earthy old demerara rum. However, to that you could also add some waxed canvas, sultanas, carbon paper, sooty coal scuttles and in time many dried wildflowers, crystallised exotic fruits and wee hints of some kind of herbal infused wax. Gets also pretty salty and leathery with more than a little rancio. Quite amazingly approachable really. With water: pretty huge now! Big, medical-accented, dark, gingery old rum but also showing these notes of salty liquorice, hessian and herbal bitters. Mouth: ok, yes, ouch. But… but… also the most beautiful of wood spices, incense, pot pourri, cinnamon, turmeric, waxed canvass, pressed wildflowers, five spice, spiced honey cake, madeira fruit loaf, some kind of ancient calvados and fir liqueur. Also these wee natural tarry and concentrated cough medicine notes. Mothballs? Complex, concentrated and superb! With water: ooft! Someone has lobbed an H2O grenade and now there’s roots, flowers, earth, leather, tar, medicines, herbs and rancio everywhere. Massive, monolithic but hugely complex and enjoyable. Keeps developing and evolving with further single drops of water. Many dried citrus peel notes and crystallised exotic fruits still. Finish: extremely long, drying, leathery, very salty and showing some pin-sharp, perfectly bitter herbs, cedar wood, fir wood and natural tar. Some animalistic gamey notes and bitter espresso too. Comments: I have to admit, when I opened this bottle I was not nearly as impressed. It’s been open almost a year now (I think) and the development with a bit of air really has worked wonders. One of those whiskies that doesn’t make sense but, despite everything, emerges victorious. What I love the most is how endlessly entertaining and evolving it is.
SGP: 663 - 92 points.

Glenlivet 1958/1968 (cask sample)
I know, what use writing notes for a 1 of 1 old cask sample? Well, I totally adore these old ‘artefact’ things so please indulge me, just for the record… Colour: straw. Nose: chiselled minerals, petrol, waxes, chalk, pebbles, white flowers, flints and some hints of plain, raw cereals such as oatcakes and freshly malted barley. The crossroads where ‘natural’ meets ‘old school’. With water: doubles down on this medical edge, notes of bandages, clay, embrocations, white pepper, gauze. More pure barley notes and some mineral oil. Mouth: wonderfully pure, medicinal and showing an almost crystalline waxiness. Minerals, petrol, starched fabric, lime, barley water. Totally brilliant, whisky for lovers of aged dry white wines. With water: terrifically fat, waxy, mineral and medical - almost greasy in texture now. Olive oil, grass, chalky medicines and lemon tea. Finish: long, punchy, medical, waxy, mineral and oily with some wee herbal notes. Comments: At times you could almost think old Giaccone Clynelish. I love to try such old cask samples because they give you a totally unvarnished glimpse into general distillery / malt whisky character of that era. Who knows what became of this whisky but more than likely it vanished into a blend, but it’s consistent in style with many of the great old OB un-sherried Glenlivets. So these characteristics we classify as ‘old style’, I would argue, were not the result of ‘cask cherry picking’ of the time, but were rather just the style that era produced. Now, of course a single sample doesn’t prove a thesis - for that we need to sit down over a pint or six. Anyway, totally brilliant, extremely ‘pure’ old style malt whisky.
SGP: 463 - 93 points.

Cotswolds 3 yo ‘Batch 1’ (50.4%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, 1783 bottles)
Cotswolds distillery started production in 2014 and use barley grown in the Cotswolds and floor malted at Warminster in Wiltshire. They also make their own Limoncello it would seem - tasting notes coming to Whiskyfun summer 2038. Colour: gold. Nose: very creamy, buttery, lots of vanilla sponge, cakes, iced biscuits, custard and young sweet wines. Easy, syrupy and undeniably impressive for 3yo. It’s also good that the sweetness feels natural and unforced, in that you don’t readily feel the oak. With water: a little juicier, a little fruitier, some flowers, cereals and orange water. Mouth: a little more oak presence now, with the warmth of ground ginger, green pepper and nutmeg. Still lots of vanilla cream, lemon barley water and even - I swear it - limoncello. Extremely easy to get along with. With water: more sweet malt extract and barley sugars, grapefruit peel, lemon and breakfast cereals liberally dusted with icing sugar. Finish: a tad brief but still on this naturally syrupy, barleyish sweetness, some white pepper, nutmeg again and citrus piths adding a wee touch of bitterness. Comments: Undeniably impressive, it’s firmly in this very ‘Jim Swan-esque’ modern style, but you cannot fail to be impressed given the age. It’s true that it’s becoming something of a cliché to say ‘amazing for the age’, when in reality we simply live in a time where active American oak is very well understood and carefully deployed in whisky maturation. What’s smart and good about this wee English knave, is that it has retained a lot of raw ingredient character and a nicely natural edge that sits in balance with the wood. For me it’s as much about the impressive absence of these harsh sawdust and pencil shaving qualities that dog so many modern youngsters as it is about those natural aspects. Good work, everyone involved.
SGP: 631 - 85 points.

Bimber 'Ex-Bourbon Batch 1' (51.8%, OB, 2020, 1948 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: what’s immediately, glaringly apparent, is that this is a distillate influenced more equitably by its fermentation rather than just by its malt and its wood. You have this initial hit of bubblegum, then some rather bright and shiny green fruits. There’s also a similar richness and natural quality to the cereal components as we saw in the Cotswolds, but here it sits alongside these bolder and more assertive fruity aspects. Citrus peels, wee fizzy esters and eventually more vanilla from the American oak emerging. With water: spices, orchard fruits, gooseberry, kiwi and some softer things like sandalwood and fabric. I even get a wee impression of chalkiness. Mouth: here you feel the oak a little more directly at first. Quite a lot of green and pink peppercorns, rye breads, nutmeg, ginger and turmeric. All hyper clean and in some ways more towards what we might think of as as ‘world whisky’ profile (terminology that’s increasingly loosing meaning in my view). With water: indeed, rather grippy spices, a mixture of fresh and bitter herbs, lime, sorrel, peppery watercress and some pretty classical vanilla sponge cake. Finish: good length, a nicely bitter, peppery, lightly herbal and even showing some notes of ointment and witchhazel. Comments: Extremely impressive stuff. The oak bites ever so slightly for me but this is undeniably classy and very well-made young whisky. I love these herbal qualities that emerge with time and a little water. Would love to try this distillate from refill one day.
SGP: 551 - 87 points.

Bimber 2016/2020 'Ex-Bourbon Cask' (58.3%, OB, cask #8, bourbon barrel, 267 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: we’re in similar territories but this is greener, leafier, things like mint leaf and light herbal infusions. Green tea with lemon, cream soda, gentle ointments, freshly baked white bread, lemon curd. Everything is more concentrated, richer, more highly polished and emitting this impression of texture and density. With water: more towards fabrics, linens, baking parchment, dry cereals and softer peppery tones. Caraway, turmeric and toasted hazelnuts. Mouth: spiciness and creaminess on arrival. Vanilla custard with green pepper, lanolin, sourdough, brown toast with salted butter, chopped parsley, more green tea - matcha even - and fabrics, a little chalk and sunflower oil. Again this tension of differing sweetnesses between the natural and the additive. With water: opens really well with water, gets earthier, richer, spicier, more bready and with a drier leafy quality that incorporates tobacco and dried herbs. Super richness in the mouth! Finish: long, terrifically bready, lemony, oily, lightly minty, cereal and retaining this almost glistening, buttery textural quality. Comments: I would say Bimber is one of a neat bundle of distilleries around the UK that is forcing us to rethink and reframe our language around youth in whisky. As Serge mentioned the other day regarding Waterford, I would say this is not good young whisky - just really good whisky full stop. Now, I’m not saying these batches won’t improve with further age, but rather that this a demonstration of what can be achieved when you dispense with all that bullshit about yields and uniformity and instead focus on a process that builds character and identity.
SGP: 661 - 89 points.

Bimber 2016/2020 'Sherry Cask' (58.1%, OB, cask #42, ex-PX sherry, 329 bottles)
Colour: ruby / amber. Nose: a rather sweet, fudgey and elegantly jammy sherry at first. Red fruit cordials, cranberry jelly and then some encroaching notes of leather, sultanas and a nice mix of damp earthiness and balsamic reduction. I don’t detect any of the more dreaded aspects of contemporary PX casks, notably these sawdusty and cloying qualities. With water: drier, leafier, more earthy, lean and even slightly mineral. I am a bit disconcerted by how many echoes of old school sherry casks are emanating from this. Mouth: bags of chocolate sauce, pink pepper, salted caramel, various meat broths and umami stocks, tobacco, earth, walnut wine. Still quite sweet with lots of treacle pudding, raisins soaked in brandy, plum wine and then again, a more leathery and slightly hessian-tinged development. Praline, hazelnuts and milk chocolate eventually. With water: strawberry jam, walnut oil, serrano ham, salted pistachios, quince, damson preserve. There’s a slightly more assertive woodiness now but it’s all very dense and gooey and cohesive. Finish: long, leathery, deeply earthy, slightly minty and just bags of dark sticky fruits. Comments: speaking as a whisky lover, all I can say is: hats off! This doesn’t quite have the fruity sheen of the bourbon cask, you do feel the pepperiness of the oak encroaching a little at times, but it’s still hugely impressive stuff. Now, speaking as a Scotsman, I say: BURN THEM!
SGP: 561 - 87 points.

Bimber 2016/2020 'Virgin Cask'(57.8%, OB, cask #7, virgin oak, 249 bottles)
Virgin oak you say? I will be extremely annoyed if I like this… Colour: deep orangey gold. Nose: very focused initially on tinned fruits, particularly peaches, apricots and yellow plums, all very gloopy and in their own syrups. Indeed, the whole thing is very syrupy and concentrated. Also some paprika, darjeeling tea, miso, cocoa, glace cherries and cocktail bitters. With water: sootier now, also drier, earthier, more on dried fruits, pot pourri, a little hessian and this rather gravely minerality. Some figs as well. Mouth: the wood is far more prevalent here as expected but it’s very toasty, creamy and buttery with plenty more paprika, some cooking oils, nutmeg, cumin, herbal bitters, natural tar and liquorice. Warming, bready and very spicy. With water: still a lot of tinned peaches, dried apricots, fruit salad juices, apple sauce, spiced custard and these rather simmering, toasty wood spices. Also brown bread, and plenty of it. Finish: long, spicy, earthy, sticky, many dark fruits, fruit cordials, cumin, paprika, bitter lemon and some slightly meaty notes in the aftertaste. Comments: FFS! I’m usually no fan at all of virgin oak, but there’s a style going on with these Bimbers that seems to work quite well, I would characterise it as very ‘concentrated’ where the wood and distillate seem to bring out the best in each other rather than jar and quibble. Now, whether that will be the same with further years remains to be seen, but it works very well right now I think.
SGP: 651 - 87 points.