Springbank - Family Review
The Springbank Family Tree
Springbank is a favored distillery among whisky aficionados and a rarity in the modern market. For one thing, the distillery is family-owned, one of the few producers left that hasn't been bought out by a major conglomerate like Diageo, LVMH, or Beam Suntory. JA Mitchell & Co., the privately held company that owns Springbank, also owns and operates the Glengyle distillery, which produces the excellent Kilkerran line of scotch, and owns the independent bottling label Cadenheads.
Springbank also hews to a lot of principles that purists love: none of their single malts are chill filtered, none have color added, and all retain age statements. There is something old-school and admirable about this approach. Every Springbank you try will have an age statement. Their main line is a 10-year whisky I've reviewed before, the 12-year cask strength version that I'm reviewing today, and then, on the higher end, 15-year, 18-year, and 21-year old single malts.
The distillery also releases a lot of limited runs employing unusual cask finishes as well as single-barrel releases, which can get quite pricey. I was fortunate enough to amass a set of samples from this lauded distillery and decided to bundle the reviews together here.
Springbank 12 Cask Strength (56.3% ABV) - This single malt is part of the core range and is a perennial favorite when it's released in batches each year. As a cask-strength bottling, the ABV will vary from release to release, but is generally in the mid-50s. This release is aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry barrels, with the proportion usually being 60:40 or sometimes 70:30. To be honest, I did not get much sherry in this dram, so would not have guessed that was in the mix before learning that fact.
Springbank has a signature flavor that I first noticed in the 10-year and now, having tried four other expressions, has dominated every single one, particularly on the nose. Springbanks always have a chalky, dry aroma, which I'd liken to the scent of gravel or -- when combined with brine -- to the scent of river rocks. Minerality might be the best single term for it, although I have a hard time describing it. It's medicinal, like the coating of adult vitamins (remember that first time when you switch from kids' chewables to the chalky adult vitamins and have to learn to swallow them whole?). In addition to that signature, the 12-year edition has some pear and crisp fruit and an underlayer of vanilla frosting. The first sip's going to be pretty prickly because of the high alcohol content, but it quickly transforms into a complex mixture of that minerality, wood, spice, brine, menthol cigarette, and honey. Another common characteristic of Springbanks is that they are not sweet whiskies, even compared to Islay scotches, which are smoky as all get-out but also have some rich fruit flavors in the mix. I do not get much fruit in any Springbank I've tasted, so the palate is a little heavy on the bitter and earthy side of the spectrum for me and suffers from a lack of ideal balance for my palate. The finish has similar notes of brine, spice, a bit of barbecue smoke, and then that final dose of minerality. B
Springbank 12 Burgundy (53.5%) - This single malt is one of the distillery's limited editions and is aged in Burgundy wine casks, which is a rare finish to find in the scotch world. It's even more unusual because this whisky is not finished in wine casks, but actually matured in them for the entirety of its lifespan. One final curiosity is that I haven't seen any discussion out there about whether the casks used were red or white wine, or a mix of both. Given that this is not a single-barrel release but in fact was several thousand bottles, the distillery easily could have done a mix of a few different types of casks (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc.). My personal guess would be that there's more white than red in here, or that the reds were quite dry, because there is not a huge amount of fruit in this release either. That being said, the dark color suggests that a decent proportion must be aged in red wine casks.
The nose reminds me more of the vineyard itself rather than the winery, if that makes any sense. The scents are earthy and suggestive of hard work out in the fields: fresh sapling wood, leather, dark soil, farm funk, and some permanent marker. I did not experience much sweetness on the nose. This felt like a slight twist on that dry, chalky distillery character. The palate is dry and slightly astringent, with a big dose of medicinal minerality again, bittersweet apple skins, mint, and herbs. On the swallow, more of the same: brine, spearmint, and dry minerality. It seems as if that distillery character or signature powered through the cask selection, or even gained strength like a hurricane over warm water, drawing the earthy and dry notes from Burgundy wine rather than the sweeter, fruitier notes. B
Springbank 17 Sherry Wood (52.3%) - I next jumped up the family tree to a significantly older single malt, a 17-year old aged in a variety of sherry and refill sherry casks, butts, etc. Once again, the aroma is instantly recognizable as Springbank. Oh, there's sherry here, but it's sherry on Springbank's terms: mild, dry, and with another wallop of that chalky minerality or medicinal flavor. Springbank is a distillery with a big personality, and it won't let you forget that it's in the room. The taste follows along the same lines, with dry sherry, a good meaty malt flavor, orange peel, and cherries. There are wisps of smoke on the palate and, you guessed it, more minerality. I wasn't able to appreciate any marked difference between this older expression and the younger, 12-year old cask strength ones, which somewhat surprised me. My experience of some single malts, like Laphroaig, is that they develop some more idiosyncratic, exotic or tropical fruit flavors over time, but there still is not a huge amount of fruitiness or sweetness in this older Springbank. It is creamier in texture, which may be the main improvement. This scotch waves goodbye with a medicinal coda combining smoke and mint. B+
Springbank 19 Port Single Cask (52.4%) - I was privileged to try a sample of this 19-year old single-cask expression, aged in a port pipe that yielded 252 bottles at cask strength, thanks to a generous friend. This is a $300 bottle of scotch, so it may be the most expensive I've tried to date. The nose exhibits some notes that are similar to the 17-year old Sherry release, with that chalky vitamin tablet signature leading the way, followed by some licorice, cherry, and plum. That plum is a unique note that I haven't noticed in any other Springbanks that I've tried and recalls to me some fond (and not so fond) memories of getting tanked on baijiu during past trips to China. On the tongue, this scotch stays faithful to its family by highlighting its dry, woody, minty, and medicinal side. That light touch of plum dances across the tastebuds ever so briefly, and there's some orange as well, but this -- like all other Springbanks that I've tried -- would never be called a fruity scotch. Springbank's distillery character is so strong that, in all variety of cask finishes, its minerality shines through and is the dominant flavor. That means that you have to love that core flavor if you're going to truly love Springbank. The finish on the 19 is the best of any Springbank I've tried to date, with the most well-rounded combination of mint, smoke, chalk, and plum. A-