A Springbank 1970 bottled by Adelphi. For me this was the best dram at the recent Fulldram Supertasting, but I have to say the top-3 was so close together that I kept switching places before settling on a final ranking.
Springbank 33 yo 1970
(54,4%, Adelphi 2003, sherry cask #1622)
Nose: heavy sherry but in a very positive way. Surprisingly fresh fruity notes: baked apples, redcurrant jam, juicy plums, blood oranges. Then some dried fruits, mainly raisins and prunes. Pleasant raspberry vinegar syrup. Some tropical hardwood. Something ethereal. Lots of oak polish and wax. A very light whiff of smoke, even earthy / farmy touches after a while.
Mouth: sweet and quite syrupy. Sour cherries, raisins, redcurrant. Waxy undertones, beautiful herbal touches (cinnamon, cardamom, clove). Hints of aniseed. Again more than just a hint of smoke. Turning towards bitter and sour balsamic notes in the end.
Finish: very long, quite herbal, with the same dried fruits and restrained bitterness and mint.
This is definitely heavily sherried, with the obvious oak notes, but the flavours stay so rounded (and intense) that it seduced me almost instantly. With a little less sourness this could have been out of this world. Long gone I’m afraid.
Score: 93/100
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