Springbank Query

S

Steven Spielmann

Steven Spielmann
I had the Springbank 10 earlier this year and it was revelatory in its briny intensity. Really excellent scotch and a steal at its pricepoint.

So, I invested in the Springbank 15. And it is also excellent. But, it is not as intense as the 10 in the ways that the 10 was intense, and while it adds many appealing features of 'rich man's scotch' (fuller, darker, sweeter) it does not have _enough_ of those to compensate for the way its increased smoothness diminishes the briny intensity of the 10.

So, strangely, I think I prefer the 10, although they're both excellent.

I feel that this ought to be a flawed judgment, but I was curious what some of you all thought.
 
I used to carry the Springbank 15yr on the back bar. I really like it, thought it was excellent. I think I first bought it because of something I read somewhere. Then about a year later, the side by side tasting opportunity occured, and it was like, yeah the 15yr is excellent, but I have a hard time justifying the extra dough because the 10yr is just great. So I switched it out and just have the 10yr behind the bar now. It's been that way for awhile. We sell more of it now, cause the price point is more in line with what folks will normally pay for single malt scotch that isn't The Macallan.

I feel like the 15yr might have been a touch better some time back, before they changed the label color. But that may just be picture association playing tricks on me.

Anyway, I think the 10yr is a bit bigger, and a bit more obvious, but for the dollar difference, it is the better value dram over the 15yr.

Just my 2 cents.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
Springbank QueryI had the Springbank 10 earlier this year and it was revelatory in its briny intensity. Really excellent scotch and a steal at its pricepoint.

So, I invested in the Springbank 15. And it is also excellent. But, it is not as intense as the 10 in the ways that the 10 was intense, and while it adds many appealing features of 'rich man's scotch' (fuller, darker, sweeter) it does not have _enough_ of those to compensate for the way its increased smoothness diminishes the briny intensity of the 10.

So, strangely, I think I prefer the 10, although they're both excellent.

I feel that this ought to be a flawed judgment, but I was curious what some of you all thought.
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The 18 yr is my favorite, the 21 is amazing...my favorite current producer (bested by the now defunct Brora scotches that are beyond all belief)
 
In reading about Springbank, they are not owned by a large corporation, and the scotches are not chill-filtered and do not have coloring added, all big positive signs in my book.

I often prefer younger single malts to the older, darker, more expensive and (often) more wood-flavored offerings, but I haven't tried these recently and need to check them out.

I have gotten spoiled drinking the most recent Signatory (Non-Chill Filtered) Auchentoshan release in the past couple months.
 
Levi, I feel validated. I suppose I should start to outgrow needing that, but thanks anyway.

Drssouth, lucky you are to have tried both. I may eventually. I can see how if they were like the 15 but 'more' they would be fine scotches indeed. Then there's the 39-year "Chieftain" release...

BWood, I can hardly recommend the Springbank 10 enough, it's one of the best $50 and under liquours I've ever had. In fact, other than maybe the entry level Guillon-Paintuiraud and a few local bourbons bought from merchants who had gotten ahold of old barrels and bottled them themselves locally in Kentucky, I'm struggling to think of much that even competes with it at the pricepoint. I guess good old Cragganmore has a pretty impressive nose, even if the palate doesn't come up to the same level. But the point is there's not much. Push comes to shove I think I'd probably rate SB 10 above all of those actually.
 
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"I can hardly recommend the Springbank 10 enough"..I second this wholeheartedly...I could consider this my "house" Scotch
 
[

"I can hardly recommend the Springbank 10 enough"..I second this wholeheartedly...I could consider this my "house" Scotch
 
Springbank has a history of inconsistency among its various bottlings. I do not know if that has to do with the mash house and distillery staff, or just that things can vary due to ingredients and aging from batch to batch, but occasionally they release a spectacular 10, and other releases have not been up to par. The current 10 yr. is quite nice, while a release from about 2002 was, frankly, unattractive by their standards. Similarly, the bottlings with more age may or may not warrant their higher tickets.

They also release a somewhat limited bottling called Longrow, made at the same Campbeltown facilty. If you like Springbank, it is well worth pursuing. Double-, not triple-distilled (Springbank is triple), and peated, so it has a lot more crank to it.

I am a Brora mourner, too. For other under $50 standouts, if you like the Springbank, try Ardmore.
 
Signatory Unchillfiltered Laphroaig 2001 is very nice for peat fans, and should retail about $55/btl, if my guess is right.
 
I have Springbank 10 open right now, and while it's serviceable enough, it's not getting me excited. The aforementioned intensity is a bit lacking. Mine was imported out of Ramona, CA; it may well be a different bottling.

The stuff that's really rocking my boat right now are Ardbeg and Caol Ila. I have a Highland Park 24 that I have high hopes for, when the right day comes.
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
I have Springbank 10 open right now, and while it's serviceable enough, it's not getting me excited. The aforementioned intensity is a bit lacking. Mine was imported out of Ramona, CA; it may well be a different bottling.

The stuff that's really rocking my boat right now are Ardbeg and Caol Ila. I have a Highland Park 24 that I have high hopes for, when the right day comes.
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How long has the Springbank been open?

The Highland Park should be pretty great.
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
The Springbank hasn't been open more than 5 or 6 weeks. It was better when freshly opened, but only by a hair.
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Interesting.

I usually notice some decline in a bottle that has been open that long. A dulling of flavor. A muddled character.

Of course it is generally slight.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by Lee Short:
The Springbank hasn't been open more than 5 or 6 weeks. It was better when freshly opened, but only by a hair.
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Interesting.

I usually notice some decline in a bottle that has been open that long. A dulling of flavor. A muddled character.

Of course it is generally slight.
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I also usually notice a decline -- more of a decline than this bottle has shown, actually. So I rarely have more than one bottle open at a time.

Ardbeg fans: I've heard from different sources that the Uigeadail and Airigh Nam Beist will be discontinued. Not sure which one is actually being discontinued, or if both are, but you might do well to prepare for the seven lean years.
 
A drink that used to be in the $30s that was maybe even better than the Springbank 10 is the Pappy Van Winkle 13 year Rye. But that generally goes for well over $60 now and is also not consistent - some bottles are notably better than others.

The Ardbeg 1990 that is on the market right now is maybe the best scotch I've had this year. But now we're creeping up towards a benjamin.

Interesting what Ken says about Springbank's inconsistency; my experiences have all been at a pretty high level, but I am far from an expert, having only sampled from a few different bottles over the last few years.

Report back on the Highland Park! I've always 'settled' for the 18 because it's so good (in absolute and QPR terms)...but inquiring minds want to know...

Caol Ila 18 is good scotch; the 12 is OK but strikes me as a little bit gimmicky, sort of a one-note whisky. (We discussed this in another thread six months or a year back.) I don't buy the 12.

My scotch drinking is not as focused as it has often been lately because this bottle of Germain-Robin XO showed up and captured my heart. I think it's high time I initiated a self-study of Armagnac.

Which leads me to a question about liquour terroirs. Scotch Whisky seems to be king here: the most regions, styles, etc. Cognac and Armagnac also have distinct terroirs within the region. Are there other liquour types that display terroir variation within a region in the way that these three do?
 
Obviously, all of them do. Not to continue to feed this pedantry. (emoticon involving an upper-case P)

Rums do, to an extent, but it's hard to separate from producer imprint because there are so few, even on a national basis. There is a vague terroir signature to same-ingredient eaux-de-vie that can be discerned when there are enough of them in a small geographical region, which very definitely means Alsace, to start. But it's nowhere near the vibrancy of that observable in the wines, and the industrial EdVs have no observable terroir at all, as they're from Rhine plain ferti-culture or worse. But get an artisanal alisier or a poire william from up above Soultzmatt and then up north, and you can taste the differences in the source ingredients.

Along similar lines, I had a Friulian producer try to demonstrate grappa terroir to me once, but that was long before I understood anything about grappa, and so the lesson was lost on me. I'd love to revisit the exercise, but haven't yet had the opportunity.

I think the French brandies are an excellent demonstration of the concept, however. In Cognac, especially, the differences can be profound. In Armagnac, my notion is there's as much vintage/producer imprint as there is site imprint, and again there just aren't that many options.

There are a lot of distillates that would seem to have terroir signatures, but the means by which to test this theory don't exist. Chateau Grillet's marc comes immediately to mind; it tastes absolutely nothing like anything else from the region (not that there are dozens of candidates), but there's no way for a consumer to know why that is.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Signatory Unchillfiltered Laphroaig 2001 is very nice for peat fans, and should retail about $55/btl, if my guess is right.
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I also like this one, and it is in fact about $55 here.

So I was so interested in trying the Springbank 10 yr, I went out and bought one and tried it. In my market it was about $15 more expensive. I do prefer most of the recent Signatory releases, but the Springbank is nice. I suspect I would like it more without the bourbon cask treatment.
 
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