56,8°
Distillery : Springbank - Campbeltown
1st Fill Ex-Sherry Butt
Independent Bottling
By Decadent Drinks
Limited Edition
Single Cask
Bottled in 2024
Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength
Peated around 12 ppm
It's the end of Whisky Sponge, a range that Angus McRaild promised would stop after 100 bottlings. It's also the end of Equilibrium, so we need another range to get things going again. It will be Whiskyland. And just to make things clear, the first Whiskyland will be a 26-year-old Springbank, Single Cask, Cask Strength, aged in a 1st Fill Sherry Butt. Perfection itself. 550 bottles have been released, making them the Holy Grail for all whisky lovers.
Let's Taste It :
Balanced, unctuous nose, with smoked orange peel, fruitcake with candied cherries and angelica, smooth brioche, all sprinkled with cinnamon and tobacco crumbs, muscat grapes, redcurrants and eucalyptus. Bread dough, hay and a pinch of salt. Prunes fermented in balsamic vinegar, and raspberries too. Aosta ham. Peppermint. Caramel and dried bananas. On the palate, between peach and pomegranate juice, mandarin purée, with meaty notes in the background, dried meat, full-fat oil, toasted cereals, a touch of sooty smoke, lively spices. The finish is very long and very successful, explosive to the core, a hint of woody iodine, cracked matches, crumpled old leather, herbaceous undertones, tall grass, reeds.
In Short,
It's very very very good, but it's not very very very very good. I was looking for something from the previous Springbank Sponge I'd tasted, this one, but this Whiskyland is much more balanced, even gentle. That's probably why it's been called old school, which I don't think it is. There are hints of sulphur and quite a lot of spice, which would have been frowned upon in the last century. It is therefore a modern whisky, extremely well made, a pure Springbank bursting with Sherry, but slightly more inoffensive than the 1996.
Score : 91
To Be Listened While Sipping :
Mirror of Venue - Never Say Forever
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