Name: Springbank 10 Year Old (2015)
Brand: Springbank
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

The other day I was selecting bottles for a whisky tasting I hosted, with all kinds of different styles. The tasting included anCnoc, GlenDronach, Lagavulin, Elijah Craig and a really old Glen Grant 1972, but I also felt the Springbank style was a must-have.

A good chance to open a recent batch of the classic Springbank 10 Years, it had been a while since I tried it.

Springbank 10 yo
(46%, OB 2015, 15/103)

Nose: still the mineral classic indeed. Earthy / rooty notes, hints of chalk and a certain ‘green’ fruitiness, some lemon and maybe unripe nectarine. Whiffs of sea air. Some candle wax and gentle peat, more the sharp kind of peat than the warm smokiness of Islay.

Mouth: oily, with a sweet malty notes to start with, quickly followed by more green, leafy notes, hints of acrid wood and some herbal tea. Mildly peated. Salted nuts. Peppery notes, with a charred (lightly bitter) edge towards the end.

Finish: not too long but in line with the rest. Slightly bitter liquorice, mild peat and salty notes.

Above all I find this an intruiging whisky and a style that reminds me of whisky from the 1950s and 1960s. I believe it has only gotten better since the other batches I tried. Around € 50.

Score: 88/100

4Comments

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1

Tabrulavubeg on 3 November 2015 at 11:07

I agree with you Ruben, very good stuff, probably too good to just mark it ‘entry level’. Happy that it’s actually cheaper than that here on the German market, where you can easily buy it for less than 40 EUR.
2

stumptownterrior on 4 November 2015 at 07:44

I’ve been drinking the Springbank 10 every now and again over the past twenty-eight years. It used to be a mainstay but then it fell from grace in my estimation. Your review intrigues me. Maybe it’s getting better again.

Last week, I tasted the Springbank Cask Strength 12 Batch 9 and was disappointed. It didn’t live up to the online hype about it. The rancid flavor was flat and a little off to my taste buds. I was hoping it would be as good as the 12 year Claret Wood, but no such luck. The nose is quite nice.

Last year, I had a problem with a 2012 bottling of Springbank 18 that I simply do not believe was an 18. I brought this to the distillery’s attention and was ignored after an initial response.

Keep an eye out for the black label 2012 bottlings of Springbank 18 that were sold in the USA. A run of Black Label Springbank 10 was bottled within two days of that (alleged) 18 year old run. I am certain that some of the 10 got mixed up with the 18 and sold for over a hundred dollars more than it was worth!

I had a bottle of the 10 and the 18 side by side and tasted them together. They looked exactly the same in the bottle as well as the glass; they also had the same noses, the same palates, and the same finishes. They were the same whiskies! Mistakes like that should be addressed by a distillery and not ignored as my advice and concerns were ignored.

This said, even though I think the distillery’s reaction was questionable in my case, I have since stocked up on boutique bottlings of Springbank that I can trust like the 17 Sherrywood Cask Strength and the 15 Recharr Sherry. I no longer trust the standard 18 year springbanks any longer and will not buy them. But I am happy to try the 10 again. I have bought it in bars after last year’s debacle, but not purchased another bottle.

As I said initially, I have been drinking Springbanks since 1987. Ah, if I could go back in time and taste the 1990’s 10 Year Old Springbanks again. They are the runs that hooked me when I was living in NYC. They were dirt cheap and tasted better than most 18 year whisky!

I didn’t know how good I had it back then, and I could swear that the reverse of what I experienced last year happened to some magical runs in the 1990s that tasted far older than 10 years! I can almost still taste them now.

My memory for tastes and smells is better than my memory of sights and sounds for some reason. I was broke as a joke back in the 90’s, but I meted out my meager budget to always have a Springbank 10 around. It was my antidepressant, my stimulant, my cold medicine, and just about everything else. I would pull my bottle off the shelf on special occasions for my friends to taste in my tiny rat hole of an apartment on Charlie Parker Place right across from Thompkins Square Park. I was there when it went from being a tent city to a gentrified playground for rich kids. Whisky generally tasted better then. It also tended to have more character and it tasted much older than the age statements now. This said, it’s much easier to buy a wide variety of whiskies now. The Internet has opened up so much in that regard.
3

Jeff on 15 November 2015 at 03:12

What happened to the review for Springbank 15 that was on tap?
4

WhiskyNotes on 15 November 2015 at 09:01

Still planned, but maybe not as soon as I thought.

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