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Friday, October 21, 2022

Springbank 14 year old 2007 Cadenhead

I'm going to keep the kibitzing to a minimum here because I just want to get to the notes for this whisky, a teenage bourbon barrel Springbank bottled by Cadenhead just a few months ago. It is good.

Because
Distillery: Springbank
Brand: Springbank
Region: Campbeltown
"Independent" bottler: Cadenhead
Age: 14 years (Late 2007 - Summer 2022)
Maturation: bourbon barrel
Outturn: 198 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 54.9%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Yes. Fruit. Nose. Mangoes, dried apricots, citrons, grapefruits. Around the fruits swirl all sorts of lovely things like sage, toasted seaweed, rope, saline and Juicy Fruit gum.

At first, the palate is all guava juice. In-season black plums, apricot jam, lemon candy and moss arrive next. It gets earthier with time, but always switches back to guava and plums. It makes for terrifyingly easy drinking at this strength. So, no, no dilution here.

The finish glows with Lotte's ume (plum) gum, apricots (dried and fresh), and bright sweet citrus. Then peaches and smoked sea salt.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I'm not going to call this a contemporary classic because I had only a small sample of the whisky, but if I had a bottle......if I had a bottle. Though this is my favorite official or semi-official Springbank since the 16 year old Local Barley, it's a different experience than anything else they've released recently. It's like a fruity 20-30 year old Speyside, like Glenburgie or Longmorn, has merged with an old peated malt whose phenolics have long since drifted into the dunnage, leaving behind quiet impressions of youth. That's all I'm asking for in a whisky really.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - maybe £85 upon release
Rating - 91