Springbank 1993 (Lockett Bros)

I must admit I hadn’t heard of Lockett Bros when they contacted me. They have a wine & whisky shop in North Berwick (not far from Edinburgh) and they have a selection of exclusive shop bottlings.

We’ll try a couple of their selections. We’ll start with this 21 year-old Springbank 1993.

Springbank 21 yo 1993 (49,4%, Lockett Bros ‘Bros Reserve’ 2015, bourbon hogshead #470, 235 btl.)

Nose: a very pure version of the typical Springbank character. Chalk, candle wax, a few metallic notes… Aspirin as well. Underneath there are some oranges, lychees, mint and ginger. Some floral top notes as well (fresh laundry).

Mouth: rather sweet and very waxy now, with a surprising fruitiness. Lemon liqueur, grapefruits, kumquats. Mid-palate it turns towards half-bubblegummy, half-soapy notes (think jawbreakers or violet sweets). And still a mineral base and plenty of salty notes. Fun.

Finish: long, sweet and salty. Leathery notes and eucalyptus too.

I can see this would have been a difficult cask for Springbank to work with in official releases, but this is exactly where independent bottlers step in. A highly entertaining but rather anti-classical cask. Around € 240.

Score: 87/100