Single Malt Report: Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength, Batch 7 (50.3%abv)

I'll now follow Tuesday's Batch 6, with Batch 7 today.  This batch seems to be the one on the shelf now in the US.  As I mentioned in the previous post, most of these "cask strength" Springbank 12s have relatively low ABVs, with this one being the lowest of all.  It's basically a 12 year 100 proof.  I liked Batch 6 a lot, let's see how Batch 7 fares.  Thank you to smokypeat for this sample!

Distillery: Springbank
Brand: Springbank

Owner: Springbank Distillers Ltd.

Age: 12 years

Maturation: a 60/40 mix of first-fill and refill sherry casks

Region: Campbeltown

Alcohol by Volume: 50.3%
Batch: 7

On a side note, it's been a long night of baby-related drama.  When I wrote these tasting notes they were coherent, but my lucidity is evaporating so I apologize if my typing descends into gibberish.

NEAT
The color is a rosy gold, darker and redder than batch 6.  The nose leads off with barbecued seaweed, matchstick sulphur, and mellow sherry.  The peat note that gradually develops is ashier than the usual Springbank peat.  This is followed by hints of fresh thyme and Dove soap.  With time, the whisky gets mossier, dirtier, and grimier.  Much more prune emerges as well.  The palate has a big salty bite.  The peat and dry sherry commingle well, though they seem rather quiet and closed.  A hint of dryer sheets keeps appearing.  With time, the palate gets tangier (or more orangey) and a mild herbal bitterness shows up.  Pepper and salt lead the finish, followed by peeps of sherry, ash, and sulphur.  The bitterness grows.

WITH WATER (approx. 46%abv)
A lot of toffee appears in the nose.  Maybe smoked toffee pudding.  Caramel, vanilla, mild peat smoke, and rubber bands follow up.  Very little outright sherry.  A hint of citron.  Gunpowder and oloroso grows in the palate, followed by dried cherries and apricots.  Lots of sugar.  Tangy tangerines, mossy peat, and flat Vernors ginger ale.  The finish gets sweeter with sort of a lollipop aftertaste.  A hint of fresh tobacco meets pepper and lemon.

Water helps this out a lot, opening the palate up a bit and giving the nose that toffee pudding note I do adore.  I'm not terribly impressed with it when neat; in fact, the sulphur note is its more interesting element.  Air also improves it in its neat state, somehow bringing out its bolder rougher elements.

While Batch 7 is decent stuff, I enjoyed #6 much more.  If 7 is the only batch that's available to you, then I recommend airing it out and experimenting with water application.  There are good elements within, they just need to be freed.

(For more positive reviews see smokypeat's, Serge's, and whiskybase.)

(UPDATE 12/121/14: My Annoying Opinions reviewed this same batch.  See his review here!)

Availability - Some specialty retailers

Pricing - $75-$95

Rating - 83 (with air and water, a few points lower without)

Single Malt Report: Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength, Batch 6 (53.1%abv)

Here's something else to be thankful for: Springbank bottled at high strength.  The official bottlers have cranked out at least nine batches of the 12 year CS over the past four years.  From what I've gathered, all the batches have been made up of 60% first-fill sherry casks and 40% refill sherry casks.  But compared to the CS sherry bombs by Aberlour, Glenfarclas, and Macallan which often clock in at 60+%abv, the Springbank CSes (other than batch #2) are at noticeably lower ABVs; with batch 7 down to 50.3%.  Yes, the Springers are a couple of years older but their angels appear to be taking expedited bigger bites.  Either that has to do with a difference in climate between the Campbeltown & Speyside warehouses or Springbank has been applying more water to the mix before bottling.  I guess a third (less likely) possibility is that the spirit is going into the barrel at a different ABV to start off with.  A fourth, even less likely, possibility is that they add underproof older stuff, though I think the days when they did that have long passed.

Anyway, higher ABVs do not mean higher quality.  I'd leap for a Springbank before any of those others without a second thought.  For me, even an average Springbank can be more interesting that many distilleries' best stuff.  Yes, I am a fan.

[PLEASE NOTE: There seems to be some confusion between retailers about some of these Springbank CS batches.  Even though my sample from Master of Malt says "Batch 5", it is in fact Batch 6.  Batch 5 had a 52.2%ABV.  David Allen of Springbank provided Ben's Whisky Blog with the official Cask Strength batch ABV data in July.  I'll go with that official info.  I've also reached out to Springbank for further clarification.]

Distillery: Springbank
Brand: Springbank

Owner: Springbank Distillers Ltd.

Age: 12 years

Maturation: a 60/40 mix of first-fill and refill sherry casks

Region: Campbeltown

Alcohol by Volume: 53.1%
Batch: 6

NEAT
Its color is apple juice.  The nose starts off as fuzzy mossy golden raisin Springbank ice cream.  Pepper, spent matchsticks, and peat swirl together into a single object.  A single rose blossom in black engine grease.  Leather shoes in wet sand.  In the palate there's a surprising grapey GlenDronach-style sherry burst.  Grape jelly too.  Meanwhile the moss doesn't entirely give into the sherry.  There are some fresh strawberries there, as well as sea salt.  Hints of mango, vanilla, and sulphur.  Grape jelly again in the finish. Sweet PX-ish sherry.  Strawberries, lemons, and salt.

WITH WATER (approx. 46%abv)
The peat moss has receded in the nose.  There's more straightforward oloroso sherry.  A mild dried fruit note.  Wet sand, boat exhaust, and (maybe) a little bit of dirty hay.  The palate is still grapey, though things get saltier and tarter.  The peat strengthens and some wormwood bitterness builds, merging with milk chocolate and caramel.  The sherry knocks the peat out of the finish.  Salt, mint, and milk chocolate.

This really works, both with and without water.  The dirty and the pretty work well together.  I like the big sherry when the whisky is neat, but I also like how the palate gets more rugged with hydration.  While I do like the defunct 100% bourbon "10 year old 100 proof" bottlings a little bit more, I was plenty impressed by this batch of sherried Springbank......so much so, I've decided to do another Springbank 12yo CS review on Thursday.

Availability - this batch was Europe only (I think)

Pricing - was in the $70-$80 range

Rating - 88

Single Malt Report: Longmorn-Glenlivet 13 year old 1974 Cadenhead

First off, I'd like to thank Cobo for supplying me with this whisky.  Older versions of Longmorn are amongst my favorite things.  Whatever the Longmorn folks used to do at the distillery worked very well.  I don't know if the change happened when they switched to steam firing in 1994 or further back when Seagrams took over and management changed in 1978.  Clearly, I need to drink more Longmorn in order to explore this further.

So here's how this one worked out.  Cobo drank the first half of the mini and then he sent me the second half.  There was about six months of oxidation sitting between the two tastings.  That time allowed for quite a bit of change as there were some differences in our experiences.  More about that after my notes...

Distillery: Longmorn
Ownership now: Pernod Ricard
Ownership then: The Glenlivet Distillers

Independent Bottler: Cadenhead

Age: 13 years (1974 - 1988)

Maturation: "Sherry Wood"
Region: Speyside (Lossie)

Alcohol by Volume: 46%

The color is light gold.  The nose first gives off a slight dusty metallic whiff.  It's not as strong of an Old Bottle Effect as other dusties I've had, but again this one had some air before my tasting.  After the OBE vanishes quickly there's a rush of tropical fruit (think mangos and pineapple) and strawberry Bubble Yum.  Underneath that is an earthy note, a little manure and hot hay.  Smaller notes of jasmine flowers and toffee linger, as does something pine-ish from the wood.  Whole lotta malt in the palate, though the sweetness stays reined in.  Plenty of oranges (peel and oil).  Peeps of Campari-like bitterness, Tobermory-esque porridge, and farm-y......farminess.  It's very lightly sherried and there are hints of the nose's tropical fruit.  Both of those elements linger through the finish, intertwined with the malt note and citrus oil, the whole package growing more candied with time.  There might be some cough syrup and mocha hiding in there too.

While this didn't buckle my knees like the ol' Scott Selection Longmorns (a pair of which were recently reviewed by My Annoying Opinions), I still really liked this Cadenhead bottling.  The fruit, earth, malt, and bitters just clicked for me.  And that might have had something to do with the six months of oxidation.  Cobo sampled this mini when it was first opened and found it to be tight, hot, woody, and sour.  I found those same difficult characteristics in the old North Port-Brechin Cadenhead mini I'd tried last year.  Do these little green bottles need some serious oxygen to open up?

If you do have the luck of finding bottles of '60s to early '70s Longmorn nowadays, they will cost money.  Those single malts age very well, thus the 30+ year olds are gorgeous and graceful and bold and lively and adjectives.  This 13 year old ain't quite there, but it's still very very good with some air.

(For more opinions on this whisky see the whiskybase listing and Johannes's review at the bottom of his Longmorn page.)

Availability - Auctions?

Pricing - Unknown

Rating - 89

NOT Single Malt Report: Booker's Straight Bourbon, batch 2013-6

Here's the other unexpected review I got to do during Thanksgiving weekend.  I've had Booker's a couple of times and found it to be good (though very hot).  My brother-in-law likes the stuff and often has a bottle on hand.  So, here's batch 2013-6, sampled from mid-bottle.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: Standard 15% rye (probably)
Age: 7 years, 6 months
Batch: 2013-6
Alcohol by volume: 62.95% ABV
Bottle code: L3255
Thank you, Andrew!

NEAT
It has the color of maple syrup.  The nose starts off with nothing but tree things (forest, sap, charred pulp).  Gradually a corn syrup note evolves, as do rock candy and hard caramel candies.  Then toasted sesame oil and dry soil.  It almost burned my nose at first sniff but then softened up with air.  The palate shows candied smoky oak, caramel-covered tree bark, sea salt caramel sauce, and cotton candy.  Lots of candy corn too.  Smaller notes of used french fry oil and black cherry syrup arrive later.  It's not complex, though the delivery is intensely hot.  The hot finish has a big note of smoky char.  Then some burnt corn and bananas meet a green woody bitterness.

I'd never added water to Booker's before but I gave it a try here...

WITH WATER (around 46-50% abv)
More nuts and caramel appear in the nose, as do lemon peels, horseradish, and celery seed.  Maybe some sherry-ish prunes.  The palate gets sweeter, with richer caramel and toffee.  Some vanilla and cherry lollipops as well.  The green woody bitterness starts to appear here.  The finish is sweet too, with lots of sugar, corn syrup, and cherry lollipops.

One thing I've noticed about Booker's is that its ethyl burn is more intense than bourbons with higher ABVs (specifically the BTACs and Elijah Craig BP).  Perhaps that's due to its younger age or it has something to do with warehouse climate.  Beam shows its pride in the high ABV by using multiple decimal places in its listing, but more alcohol doesn't necessarily mean more flavor.  For instance, I find their Baker's product to be more vibrant than Booker's even though it is bottled at a lower abv (53.5%) and at about the same age (7 years).

Adding water improved things with this batch.  When neat, the nose is hot oak juice.  With water, it starts developing a wider variety of characteristics.  When neat, the palate is hot and simple, though better than the nose.  With water, it becomes richer.  The finish ain't great when neat; water softens and sweetens it up.  That's why I'm going to recommend adding water to this batch.  I still want to recommend Baker's over Booker's overall, but I won't do so until I try them side by side.

Availability - Most US liquor retailers

Pricing - $45-$65

Rating - 79 for this batch (with water only, 5+ points lower when neat)

Single Malt Report: Bushmills 12 year old Distillery Reserve

I just did a pair of unplanned reviews this past holiday weekend.  My brother-in-law, Andrew, had a few interesting items on his bar shelf.  I'll post one today, one on Wednesday, and (perhaps) on Friday there will be a review of a surprise sample someone else sent me.

First up: Bushmills 12 year old Distillery Reserve.

Sold only at the Old Bushmills distillery itself in Northern Ireland, the Distillery Reserve is "mostly" matured in ex-oloroso casks.  Andrew's buddy, AJ, brought him back this bottle which was at its midpoint when I got into it.  It had been a while since I'd had any Bushmills, which was mostly due to my Diageo issues.  I used to find Bushmills White Label (aka White Bush) to be anywhere from bland to crap.  Black Bush and the 10 year old single malt were better than the White, but not enough for me to spring for a bottle.  But again keep in mind, it had been six or seven years since I'd had anything except for the White.  The good news is that the 12 year old is much better than White Label.

Brand: Bushmills
Owner: Diageo (soon to be Jose Cuervo)
Distillery: Old Bushmills Distillery
Location: County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Type: Single Malt
Age: minimum 12 years
Maturation: "mostly" ex-oloroso casks, thus probably some ex-bourbons in there too
Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Bottle code: L2166
Thank you, Andrew!

The color is DiageoGold™.  The nose is full of fruity fortified wine notes like plum and orange.  Those are met evenly with a rush of roasted walnuts and almonds.  Smaller notes of Twix wafers and mint chip ice cream pop up.  Towards the end of the experience, a big note of dulce di leche emerges.  The palate is more reserved.  Milk chocolate, orange cream, and spearmint leaves arrive first.  Hints of lime and vanilla bean later on.  Something about it was reminiscent of Glenfiddichs 15 and 18 (though more spirity) but I couldn't put my finger on it.  The finish gets much sweeter with notes of caramel, cherry syrup, and orange oil.

Andrew's wife, Leslie, thinks this whiskey's nose the best part.  I agree with her.  The nose is great, very rich and full for a low abv whiskey.  That low abv is probably what keeps the palate from rising above 'good'.  Its texture is watery and the flavors never really lift off.  That being said, it's very drinkable.  It finishes lightly as well, dissolving and vanishing a bit quicker than I'd like.

Overall, this was a surprise.  The nose was good enough to carry this into B-grade territory.  I'll say (as I often do) that this could be a killer at 46%abv.  And since it's only sold to distillery visitors, it's not like they're exporting millions of cases.  So why not have a lighter hand with the water there, Big D?  You'd rather lessen the quality of a product so that you can squeeze out a couple hundred more bottles a year?  Of course you would.

Anyway, this is decent whiskey.  I don't know what they're charging for it, but hopefully it isn't much higher than what one would normally pay for "decent whiskey".  If you (the reader) are visiting Bushmills, see if they'll allow you to try a drip of the 12 during the "Tasting Experience" because I always encourage folks to try before they buy.

Availability - Distillery only

Pricing - around 36GBP (thanks to Ol' Jas for the info!)

Rating - 84

Fail...er...Adventures in Blending: Trader Kirk's 10 year old blended malt

On Monday, I reviewed the 10 year old Highland single malt that bears Trader Joe's name on its label.  On Tuesday, I reviewed Kirkland's 18 year old sherry-finished Speyside.

Just gonna keep recycling the same bad picture

TJs' 10yo Highland joins the "don't buy at Trader Joe's" list, accompanying their chicken (the grisliest butchery since I, Robot and Bicentennial Man -- seriously, leave Asimov the f**k alone), their whole wheat pita (reliably covered in mold less than 24 hours after purchase), their refried beans (which taste like absolutely nothing), and the Dark Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Slims (because I will eat the entire damn bag in the car).  Meanwhile, Kirkland's 18yo Speyside is worth its $30 price tag.

TJs' single malt's weakness is its palate.  It is light on character, like a bland blend.  I was hoping that adding a little Kirkland malt would pep it up.  And by "little", I mean "a lot".  The ratio in my blend experiment was 3 parts Kirkland 18yo to 2 parts TJs 10yo.  The result?

The biggest element of the nose is a wall of charred American oak, almost like a watery bourbon.  Once that, and a big ethyl pop, wears off it gets lightly floral and grainy.  More welcome notes of halvah, cardamom, anise, and honey appear with time.  The palate is papery, bitter, and has an odd amount of heat for its 40%abv.  Tart lemons, black pepper, banana, and malt make brief appearances.  Grain, heat, caramel, and banana appear in the finish, but it's mostly black pepper and blah.

Thus, if you have a bottle of $19.99 Trader Joe's 10 year old Highland single malt that needs pepping up, you're going to need something bigger and bolder than Kirkland's 18 year old sherry-finished Speyside.  You'll need a sherry bomb or something Laphroaig-ish.  Otherwise, you shouldn't waste too much of the 18yo on it.

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For this Turkey Day, I recommend not drinking.  That's right!  Whisky blog guy says don't drink on Glutton Day.  Save those calories for all the awesome food on the table.  Though, if the food sucks (and/or the company sucks) then drink something that tastes really good and isn't necessarily a bargain.  You gotta enjoy something.  May you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Single Malt Report: Kirkland 18 year old Speyside Sherry Finish

During this Thanksgiving week, I'm determining my level of thankfulness for two inexpensive store brand single malts:  Trader Joe's 10 year old Highland (reviewed on Monday) and Kirkland 18 year old Speyside Sherry Finish (reviewed here today).

While not terrible, the Trader Joe's single malt was mild-to-bland on the palate, almost a light beer type of whisky.  Kirkland's single malts are provided by Alexander Murray & Co., just like TJs'.  So they also have 40%ABVs and are inexpensive.

Like yesterday's TJs sample, this one was provided by Florin (a prince).  When he and I first tried this whisky two years ago, we found some similarities between it and Tomatin 18.  But Tomatin is not in Speyside, so if anyone has anything theories as to what distillery provided this "Speyside", please let me know in the comments below.  This whisky has been replaced at my local Costco by a 20yo sherry finish Speyside and a 18yo sherry finish Highland at different times, but there may still be bottles of this one left on shelves at other locations.

Label: Kirkland

Distillery: ???
Bottler: Alexander Murray & Co.
Type: Single Malt
Region: Speyside

Age: minimum 18 years

Maturation: probably ex-bourbon casks to start and ex-sherry casks to finish

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

NEAT
The color is an orange gold.  The nose's most prominent straightforward notes are honey, nutty sherry, fuji apples, and maple.  But it also shows quirkier things like vinyl, graphite, new shoes, and wet sheep.  The palate is mellower than the nose, malty and tangy.  Milk chocolate, caramel, honey, and peaches make up much of the delivery.  A chemical bitterness intrudes here and there.  Burnt black raisins and wood pulp also have cameos.  The finish grows more citrusy and the bitterness improves a bit.  The wood pulp lingers as do those burnt black raisins.

(I'm ambivalent at best about whiskies resulting from brief finishes in ex-sherry casks, so that should be taken into account when considering my conclusions.)

This was an improvement over the Trader Joe's 10yo right from the start.  And it's better than one would normally expect from a 40%abv store brand whisky.  But I wouldn't say this is a particularly great single malt.  Again, the nose is the best part, showing some decent complexity possibly coming from the age.  The palate works occasionally, but something keeps screwing it up -- whether it's e150a or some crap casks.

We consumers should not be lured by an 18 year age statement, as in "Woo! 18 year old whisky for only $30! I'll buy a case!".  An older whisky doesn't guarantee quality and a bargain isn't necessarily a great find.  (This is coming from someone who has been hunting bargains for his entire life.  This year alone I've purchased a half dozen cheap whiskies which have provided me nothing but regret. More about this issue another time.)  I think $30 is a reasonable price for this single malt.  The quality is significantly better than the Trader Joes 10yo, arguably better than Glenmorangie Lasanta, but falls short of Tomatin 18yo.

Level of thankfulness: I'm thankful I had multiple opportunities to try this whisky.  And I'm thankful to have a little extra that I can utilize to improve TJs' 10yo...

Availability - Costco
Pricing - $29.99-$32.99
Rating - 78