Single Malts of Scotland Islay 30 Year Old Whisky Review!

A mystery Islay single malt from independent bottler Single Malts of Scotland, part of their "Marriage of Casks" series of older-aged small batch releases, at a whopping 30-years of age!

Despite the fact that casks of any Islay single malt are becoming harder to source and much more expensive, it seems just about every independent bottler has released at least one cask of 25-30 year old Islay during the last few years. Whereas the majority of younger mystery Islay single malts tend to be Caol Ila, purely by volume and availability, these older rarer examples seem to be different - they seem to be from the southern distilleries, and mostly from one in particular. This is all speculation really since aside from a few subtle hints from insiders we don't really know which distillery the cask or casks were sourced from, but given the flavour profiles it does make sense. It is of course possible that some were sourced from different distilleries, but having been lucky to enough to try older whiskies from all-but-one of the Islay distilleries, which take on quite distinctive characters at these sort of ages, I believe most of them to be Laphroaig. Bunnahabhain and Bruichladdich are mostly unpeated, and particularly were 25-30 years ago compared to the current day, so we can basically discount those two, particularly given Bruichladdich's closure around that time. Bowmore tends to lean more floral and is much more lightly peated, and Ardbegs of this age would be far more expensive and much more scarce thanks to the distillery's history around that time - having reopened in 1997. That essentially leaves Caol Ila, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig as potential candidates. Lagavulin is the one example where I haven't tasted enough 25-30-year old examples to know, aside from one cask sample during the distillery's warehouse tasting. Caol Ila tends to become more herbal and drier at these ages, but it's also quite the chameleon. Laphroaig though is more predictable at these advanced ages, particularly in ex-bourbon and/or refill casks. At around 25-years it starts to become lighter and more floral, less peaty and less medicinal, and at ages beyond that the tropical fruit characteristics grow as much as the phenolics tend to subside. Again, this is all really just speculation, but I would guess this one to be a Laphroaig. Regardless, it's an Islay single malt (malt whisky from one distillery), and most importantly it's delicious!

Smaller bottlers like Whisky Jury, Thompson Brothers, Whisky Sponge, and also Signatory Vintage all released single casks of these advanced aged "undisclosed" Islay single malts between 2021-2024, all aged 26-31 years and at similar ABVs and broadly similar pricing at launch ($600-900 AUD). That would make me think that a private cask owner or cask broker has gotten their hands on a "parcel" of casks from one particular source. Pricing however has climbed up since the earlier days of these independent releases, but so have the advanced-age official bottlings which are now stupidly expensive. The one exception in Australia is the 25-year old official bottling, which was recently cleared by the local importer and could be found for retail sale as low as $375 AUD, which is roughly half of the regular pricing. That's because Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), the current Australian distributor, is selling at below cost to clear their inventory before Beam Suntory begins direct distribution in mid-2025. And rather than working out a deal to sell their stock to Beam Suntory, CCA decided to flood the market with stock at drastically reduced pricing, which isn't going to make it easy for the new operation after takeover. I would not want to be a Beam Suntory sales rep walking in to a retailer with Laphroaig or Yamazaki when that customer will have paid far less during the runout sale; they'll have an uphill battle for a while there! And even if the retailers have sold the reduced stock by then, the bars and end users (us!) either won't have finished their bottles or won't be in any hurry to replace them at double the price. 

Single Malts of Scotland is one of the independent bottling brands from Elixir Distillers, alongside the Elements of Islay blended malts and the Port Askaig Islay single malts, and Black Tot Rum. Elixir are the former owners of The Whisky Exchange (which is now owned by Pernod Ricard) who now own Tormore Distillery in Speyside and are currently building Islay's tenth distillery Portintruan. Single Malts of Scotland has become more prominent in the last few years, from the entry-level small batch "Reserve Casks" series, to the cask strength single casks, to the "Marriage of Casks" series, and then the top-end "Director's Special" bottlings which are personally selected by Sukhinder Singh. As you can guess from the name, rather than being single cask bottlings the Marriage of Casks releases are small batches of 1-3 casks married together, and reduced in ABV to 47.5%. This one was a very generous birthday present from some great mates which I opened & shared on the spot, and it's definitely deserving of a review! This 30-year old Islay single malt was matured in two refill ex-bourbon barrels and one refill sherry butt, vatted together and bottled in early 2023 at the slightly-reduced ABV of 47.5%. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and natural colour. Let's give it a whirl!

Single Malts of Scotland Islay 30-year old, 47.5%. Islay, Scotland.

Anonymous / undisclosed Islay distillery, single malt matured in 2 x refill ex-bourbon barrels and 1 x refill sherry butt. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Peaty, fruity, buttery. Dry ashy peat, ripe mango spread over toast, with melting salted butter. Oyster shells, olive brine, and tar alongside. Some old natural rope & salt-crusted driftwood around the edges. Fresh pineapple juice, a touch of crystallised ginger, and candied lemon peel. Warm caramel fudge, seaweed, and black pepper further in. 

Texture: Medium weight. Soft & buttery. Sweet, fruity, ashy. No heat at all. 

Taste: Sweet buttery & fruity entry - is mango butter a thing? If not, then it should be! Then a wave of warm ashy & dry earthy peat. Melted salted butter, crystallised ginger, and candied lemon again. Soft ashy peat runs underneath pineapple juice, toasted oak, and a touch of cinnamon. 

Finish: Long length. Soft earthy & ashy peat carries through, some cigar smoke this time too. Oyster shells & seaweed behind that, with sea salt caramel sauce. Mango, pineapple, and pawpaw / papaya. Touches of tar, mothballs (camphor), and a little leather to finish. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Just a lovely dram! Older Islays can be a minefield of disappointment and over-casking, and over-pricing, but they can also be utterly fantastic. In fact older (25+) Laphroaigs seem to be the more consistent, at least when looked after properly - i.e. no hasty finishing or overly assertive casks! When treated well they can often develop this fantastic sweet fruitiness, without losing the phenolics for balance. Which is exactly what we have here! This 30-year old Single Malts of Scotland is a complex, soft, and supple dram which is still evolving 3.5-months after opening. The balance here is just spot-on. Great work Elixir Distillers - these people know their way around Islay whiskies!

Cheers!

Cadenhead's Mortlach 13 Year Old Whisky Review!

A 13-year old single cask Mortlach from independent bottler Cadenhead's, bottled in 2017 during their 175th anniversary. This is how "The Beast of Dufftown" should be treated!

Image c/- scotchwhisky.com

Like many of Diageo's underappreciated distilleries, for many years there was only one option for lovers of Speyside's Mortlach Distillery; the independent bottlers. The likes of Signatory Vintage and particularly Gordon & MacPhail have bottled some excellent Mortlachs, including the 15-year old in their "Distillery Labels" range which was basically a surrogate official bottling. It was these independent bottlings that earned Mortlach's reputation amongst whisky aficionados, something that it continues to enjoy today. Diageo did release a Flora & Fauna bottling in the mid-2000s that is reported to be one of the best in that rather large range of semi-core range bottlings, which is now reflected in its rarity and the pricing on the secondary market. The gigantic drinks corporation did eventually realise what they were squandering by only tipping Mortlach malt in to their blended products, and in 2014 they decided to release a small range of single malt official bottlings. Unfortunately they made a complete hash of it by only presenting it in 500ml bottlings, pricing it too highly, adding artificially colouring, and chill filtering, and only bottling it at 43.4% ABV - with the exception of one travel retail (duty free) exclusive and a couple of cask strength bottlings in their annual Special Releases program in 2021. Unfortunately they also made a complete hash of those by snorting a little cocaine before deciding on their pricing, which saw non-age statement bottlings from a relatively obscure distillery priced at $350-400 AUD. Mortlach did also make an appearance in the corporation's Game of Thrones bottlings, surprisingly bottled at 46% ABV and in 700ml format, but I'm yet to try that one. Diageo did realise their mistake with the core range bottlings, re-launching them in 700ml bottles a few years later. Unfortunately they decided to stick with the 43.4% ABV, even in the $350 AUD 20-year old bottling, and left their standard artificial colouring and chill filtration practices in place. Which is where the official single malt bottlings still remain today, after some inevitable price rises of course. 

Mortlach enjoys the reputation it does because of the style of its single malt, which is heavy, meaty, sulphurous, and characterful, hence the colloquial nickname "The Beast of Dufftown" since it's easily the heaviest single malt produced in that area. This is also why the distillery's malt was highly prized for blended whiskies, adding weight and texture. In my experience Mortlach tends to work particularly well in ex-Oloroso sherry casks, which is something that Diageo are yet to give us - even in the massively overpriced Special Releases, where they've instead used wine casks, virgin oak casks, and even port & muscat fortified wine casks. Silly pricing aside, that may be the idea behind most of the bottlings in the Special Releases range, but it's not what we whisky geeks want! Mortlach is unrecognisable compared to its more famous Dufftown neighbours; Glenfiddich and Balvenie, and it's nearly 65-years older than Glenfiddich, having been founded in 1823. 100-years later the distillery was sold to John Walker (yes, that one) & Sons, which became part of DCL a few years later, which in turn became part of Diageo. Annual output is a relatively large 3.7-million litres of spirit, achieved through six large wooden washbacks and six pot stills, a relatively short fermentation time of 53-hours (roughly half of most modern distilleries) and a relatively fast distillation speed. That heavy, meaty, sulphurous character in the Mortlach spirit is partly down to the externally-located worm tub condensers fitted to all six stills, but the fermentation and distillation times also have an impact, as does the shape & design of the stills, and the distillery's unique distillation regimen which has been in place since the late 1890s! Mortlach's spirit is distilled a sum total of 2.81-times, through a complicated and very convoluted system. 

The very-short version is that some of the final spirit has been distilled twice, some three times, and some four times, resulting in a mathematical total of 2.81-times. The less-short version is that the heads & tails from two of the three wash stills are combined with the heads & tails from two of the three spirit stills, with that liquid then being filled into the first spirit still, affectionately dubbed "Wee Witchie" thanks to it resembling a witches' hat in shape. But that's not where the weirdness ends, because nothing is collected from this spirit still during after that distillation run! Instead this first distillation run is a "blind run" or "dud run" where no cuts are taken before it is run again, and the entire contents have been distilled a second time in the same still. So some of the resulting spirit has been distilled three times - once through a wash still, then twice through Wee Witchie - and some has been distilled four times - once through a wash still, once through another spirit still, and then twice through Wee Witchie. As for the third wash still and the third spirit still, those two are paired together and are operated conventionally, meaning the heart of that spirit run was only distilled twice. Like I said, rather convoluted, and the resulting heavy & meaty spirit is not recommended for beginners who might be expecting a light, sweet, and fruity Speyside dram like those produced up the road!

This particular Mortlach is a 13-year old single cask bottling from Cadenhead's, the independent bottler owned by J&A Mitchell, the company behind Springbank and Glengyle (producing Kilkerran) distilleries. This is Scotland's oldest independent bottler, having been founded in 1842! This 13-year old was distilled in 2003 and was initially matured in a refill hogshead (250-litre cask) for roughly 11-years before being filled into a first-fill Oloroso sherry cask of the same size. It spent roughly 3.5-years in that sherry cask before being bottled in mid-2017 at a cask strength of 55.1% ABV, with a yield of 306 bottles. Naturally it is non-chill filtered and natural colour, like all single malts from J&A Mitchell. The sherry cask bottlings from Cadenhead's would normally be packaged in a dark red box, but 2017 was the 175th anniversary of Cadenhead's, which saw selected bottlings packaged in the tartan box seen below, plus the addition of a copper neck tag embossed with the same "175" logo. I purchased this bottle at auction in Britain a few years ago, and it wasn't cheap with shipping and duties included. But here in 2025, and for the quality it offers, it was a relative bargain! Let's see how it goes. 

Cadenhead's Mortlach 13-Year Old, 55.1%. Speyside, Scotland.

Distilled 2003, initially matured in refill hogshead, finished in first-fill Oloroso sherry hogshead from 12/2014, bottled mid-2017 (finished for 3.5-years approx.). Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 306 bottles. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Spicy, dried fruit, tickles the nose hairs! Prunes & raisins, black cherries, crystallised / candied ginger, wood spices, and butter cream icing. Gravy powder, beef stock, and a touch of marmite. Bitter dark chocolate with coffee beans. 

Texture: Heavy weight. Thick & chewy, spicy & meaty. No heat here, the texture hides it well!

Taste: Great thick & meaty feel with beef stock, gravy powder, ground ginger, and dates. Fruit & nut dark chocolate with a bit of rum & raisin ice cream. Nutty toffee, tea tree oil, and a little bitter orange peel. 

Finish: Long length. More orange peel, beef stock, and gravy powder. Ginger syrup, marmalade, and more nutty toffee - hazelnuts mainly. Some dried fruit leather / roll-ups, dark chocolate, and coffee beans. Butter cream icing again with that tea tree oil. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious Mortlach that really belies its age. Plenty of complexity and, for my tastes at least, the perfect amount of sherry cask influence. That cask influence hasn't added much sweetness, letting the drier side of Mortlach's character shine. Great balance of meaty & spicy notes with fruit & oak, while that chewy texture helps balance out the dryness. One of my favourite Mortlachs to date, particularly at a relatively young age. This 13-year old has character & texture that the NAS & core range official bottlings can only dream of! Independent bottlings like this Cadenhead's single cask are exactly why Mortlach has such a cult following among enthusiasts. Great stuff!

Cheers!

SMWS 25.64 Rosebank 22-Year Old Whisky Review!

As special drams go, this one is right up there! The only Rosebank I'll ever own, found for a bargain price a few years ago, and opened to help celebrate my 40th birthday!

A triple-distilled Lowland single malt using worm tub condensers. On paper it sounds strange and contradictory, much like the production regimens of many other Scotch whisky distilleries. But in the case of Rosebank there's one undeniable fact: whatever the reasoning for those contradictions, it worked! This dead - but now rebuilt - distillery in Falkirk, roughly 45-minutes north of Edinburgh, has earned a cult following since it's closure in June 1993. Then-owner United Distillers' (which later became Diageo) reasoning for closing this 150-year old malt whisky distillery was a £2,000,000 investment to make it compliant with environmental requirements and waste practices. After the distillery was closed the property was sold to the local government thanks to its convenient location on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the distillery buildings soon fell into disrepair and neglect. The stills were then cut up & stolen under suspicious circumstances and other pieces of plant were pinched for other distilleries, which cemented Rosebank's fate. 

For most Scotch whisky lovers there are three most-vaunted names uppermost in their list of departed distilleries; Brora in the Highlands, Port Ellen on Islay, and Rosebank in the Lowlands. This dead distillery trifecta is far more popular and more widely known than they were while operating, akin to many great artists not being appreciated fully until their demise. Maybe we don't know what we've got 'til it's gone! Diageo still own the former two distilleries which have since been rebuilt and reopened, but in 2017 they surprisingly sold the Rosebank brand and remaining stocks to Ian McLeod Distillers, the company behind Tamdhu & Glengoyne distilleries plus a few independent bottling brands. Ian McLeod also managed to purchase the original distillery site and the remaining buildings from the Scottish government, and in 2019 they began planning to rebuild Rosebank Distillery. Work didn't actually begin until 2021 and production at the new distillery - pictured above - didn't begin until mid-2023, and the visitor's centre didn't open until mid-2024. The company has continued to release the old pre-closure stock as well, and will do so until 2026-onwards when the new spirit comes of age as Scotch whisky.

Despite the new owner's efforts to retain as much of the original Rosebank site as possible, in reality this is a completely new and modern distillery. But they've stayed true to the Rosebank name by going with 100% triple-distillation and worm tub condensers, arguably the most important part of the distillery's production regimen. Triple distillation is a practice more widely (and inaccurately) attributed to Irish whiskey, and is a rarity in Scotch whisky. The entirety of Rosebank's production is distilled three times rather than the usual two-times that is commonplace in Scotch whisky. A few Scottish distilleries do dabble in triple distillation - for example Benromach, Benriach, Glasgow, and Springbank for their Hazelburn brand, but only Beam Suntory's Auchentoshan and now Ian McLeod's Rosebank triple distill 100% of their spirit production. Crucially, particularly for a triple-distilled spirit, each of Rosebank's three pot stills are equipped with traditional worm tub condensers, which makes Rosebank unique in Scotch whisky and quite possibly in the world. While triple-distillation makes for a lighter, cleaner, and more refined spirit, worm tub condensers do the opposite by providing less copper contact than a modern shell & tube condenser, while also being faster to condense the spirit vapours back into liquid. Essentially the spirit vapours travel through the lyne arms at the top of the pot stills into a single copper or sometimes stainless steel coiling pipe which plunges into a vat of cold water, rapidly cooling the vapours back into liquid. This results in a heavier, more characterful, and more viscous spirit when compared to a modern shell & tube condenser, generally also resulting in a more meaty, dirty, or sulphurous character due to lessened interaction with copper which removes sulphur compounds from the spirit. And that's what we have with Rosebank; a floral but muscular, viscous but delicate Lowland single malt. This is even apparent in the few younger examples that I've been lucky enough to try over the years, but it's a profile that also works beautifully with long-term ageing in a refill cask. Which is exactly what we have here!

The Rosebank that we're looking at today is an independent bottling from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), who use distillery code '25' to signify Rosebank. Named "Manzanilla Sherry Trifle" this bottling was the 64th cask of Rosebank that "The Society" had bottled, so it's labelled as 25.64 in their coding system. It was distilled on the 14th of November 1990 and matured in a single refill ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre cask) prior to being bottled at 22-years of age back in 2013. 231 bottles were released at a cask strength of 58.9% ABV, and it is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. I was lucky enough to stumble across this bottle at a very reasonable price - all thanks to a much appreciated heads up from a fellow whisky nerd - a few years ago, and since Rosebank is the favourite distillery of another good mate, I decided to crack it open to help celebrate my 40th birthday in late-2024 where I opened one bottle for each person's favourite distilleries. As you can see, unfortunately for me one of these good mates has much more expensive tastes than the rest of us, and I'm extremely unlikely to ever own another bottle of Rosebank! But he & the rest of us loved the dram if anything it's improved even further in the subsequent months. So I stand by my decision! Let's get into it!

Rosebank 22-year old, SMWS 25.64, 58.9% ABV. Lowlands, Scotland.

Distilled 14/11/1990, matured in single ex-bourbon hogshead, bottled 2013. 231 bottles, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Malty, fruity, floral, and dense. Lovely biscuity malted barley, milk bottle lollies (vanilla chewy sweets), quality vanilla custard, marzipan, and ground wood spices. Woody & sweet dried flowers (pot purri mix), bitter grapefruit rind, and a touch of lemon peel. White pepper, salted liquorice, and freeze-dried berries. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Thick & viscous, oily, malty, and spicy. Slight heat, but it is 59% alcohol after all!

Taste: Malty dry entry with that biscuity malt, more white pepper, ground wood spices, some freshly cut hardwood & sawdust. Salted liquorice again, vanilla bean custard, and pot purri (woody & sweet dried flower mix). Marzipan, a touch of thickened cream, and lemon butter cake icing. 

Finish: Long length. White pepper, marzipan, and a little fresh sawdust. Sharp & bitter grapefruit (one of my favourite notes in whisky), and that lemon butter cake icing. Still malty & biscuity, sweet, lightly floral & woody. This 22-year old Rosebank would make a fantastic perfume!

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Just delicious. Rosebank really is excellent, and this is a great example, one of the best I've had to date. The only other Lowlanders I've had that come close are St. Magdalene / Linlithgow, which is far rarer and even more expensive than Rosebank, and one good ex-bourbon cask Daftmill - in a more "modern" style of course. In fact there were surprising similarities between that first Daftmill I tasted and those younger Rosebanks mentioned above, which is surprising because Daftmill use neither triple distillation nor worm tub condensers... Just goes to show that both distilleries were & are doing something right! It's good to see Rosebank finally kick back into life, and I hope the new owners can successfully recreate this fantastic & unique style of whisky. Time will tell - a couple of decades' time, in fact. 

This review is slightly bittersweet, since this bottle is irreplaceable, but I'm very glad I've opened it. And for a fitting occasion as well! I'll not be rushing to finish this very special bottle - not that I ever do rush to finish a bottle, often taking years! But I'll be stretching this one out as much as possible. Fantastic whisky and a great example of what Rosebank made back then, and hopefully will make again. 

Cheers!

SMWS 3.309 Bowmore 13-Year Old Whisky Review!

Another auction win! This one is a 13-year old single cask Bowmore bottled by the SMWS, titled "Peat Smoke, Pipe Ash, and Pata Negra"... Don't worry, I had to google that one too; it means "black foot" in Spanish and refers to Iberico jamón (Spanish ham). Thanks for that, SMWS!

Ah, Bowmore. If it weren't for the independent bottlers, I'd have a totally different opinion on this distillery. I suspect most serious malt heads are in the same boat there. Bowmore seems to be quite a versatile spirit, despite being the most lightly peated of the peated Islay malts. It can work quite well in very active sherry casks, and can even hold up to virgin oak. But it's in refill and/or ex-bourbon casks that this distillery really seems to shine, particularly when left alone until the mid-teens or preferably longer. Most importantly though, it needs to be bottled at a decent ABV and without chill filtration and artificial colouring. Which is of course where the vast majority of official bottlings drop out of the race. When it comes to the Bowmore core range, distillery owners Beam Suntory really don't seem to give a shit. This is Islay's oldest surviving malt whisky distillery, yet the owners choose to only give us 40-43% ABV whiskies that are chill filtered to the harshest degree, and are loaded with artificial colouring. Let's not forget that the 15-year old expression used to be called "Darkest", despite being thoroughly dosed with E150 caramel colouring! That's quite a different story to sister distillery Laphroaig, where Beam Suntory allows three core range expressions to be bottled at 48% (Quarter Cask, Lore, and 10yo Sherry Oak) without chill filtration. Interestingly Bowmore and Laphroaig have two of Islay's three malting floors, although the in-house malt only provides 15-20% of their requirements, with the rest sourced from commercial maltings either at Port Ellen (not anymore, I'm sure) or on the mainland. Beam Suntory have also spent a substantial amount over on the east coast at Glen Garioch, where the malting floor has been recommissioned and the wash still has been converted to direct firing, along with the promise of reverting to the use of peated malt in future. And that distillery's core range has been bottled at 48% and above for quite some time now. So maybe all is not lost just yet!

There are higher ABV official bottlings of Bowmore, of course, but they're priced beyond the reach of most of the distillery's fans. Very few - if any - of those higher-end expressions are ever imported in to Australia, so a quick browse of a UK retailer tells me that you'd need to spend upwards of $600 AUD to get your hands on something like that. Those of us in Australia may get some more higher-end Bowmore OBs in mid-2025 however, when Beam Suntory switches to direct distribution as their decade-long distribution contract with Coca-Cola is due to expire. For now though, as with many distilleries, if you want a higher ABV and naturally presented example, you'll need to look to the independent bottlers. Thankfully there are always a few to choose from, although the stock does seem to be diminishing and the ages do seem to be moving upwards, with prices jumping much higher as a result. 15-18 year old cask strength Bowmores are regularly appearing for $400 or more here, which might be pushing it, but is also a sign of the times. Younger examples seem to be thin on the ground too, which has me thinking that the distillery has reduced its sales to external customers. Which is a real shame if the distillery is going to keep pumping out boring chill filtered whiskies at 40-43% ABV rather than show us what they can do with their own product at a reasonable price. The Vaults series of NAS bottlings were the most recent appearance of such a thing, at sub-$200 with ABVs in the mid-50s. Originally there were meant to be four releases in that series, but to date only two have seen the light of day - "Atlantic Sea Salt and "Peat Smoke", with the former being released in 2016 and the latter in 2019. So we'd better not hold our breaths for any future instalments in the series! 

This particular SMWS Bowmore, code 3.309 -  meaning the 309th cask they've bottled from distillery code 3, which is Bowmore - is a single cask 13-year old that was distilled in 2004. It was matured in a refill hogshead and bottled at a cask strength of 56.2% in early 2018, with an outturn of 241 bottles. They've named this cask "Peat Smoke, Pipe Ash, and Pata Negra" which as mentioned above is a fancy way of saying Spanish ham. "The Society" is never shy with their bottling names, or with their tasting notes - some are just absolute wank! At least it sounds like many of us want in a Bowmore, hopefully with some tropical fruit, citrus, and a medicinal edge. Let's give it a go!

SMWS 3.309 Bowmore 13-year old, 56.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 2004, matured in single refill hogshead, bottled 2018. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 241 bottles.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Buttery, medicinal, smoky, fruit. Chilled salted butter, tiger balm & deep heat muscle gels, honeydew melon on toast (yes, I know...), white pepper, camphor (moth balls), and cigar ash. Lemon balm ointment, smoky malted barley, hint of lavender bath soap. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, sweet, medicinal, fruity. Slight heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Sweet tropical fruit gels (the pastille / jube lollies with the jelly / liquid centres), fresh sharp pineapple, mango skins, more salted butter & medicinal ointments. Big pinch of white pepper, some damp rock pool-like minerality. Hot tar & asphalt (i.e. new road), touch of gravy powder / beef stock around the edges. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Melted salted butter, cigar ash, more sweet fruit with mango skins, honeydew melon, and fresh pineapple. Salted preserved lemons, smoky malted barley, heavily smoked ham around the edges. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious spirit-driven Bowmore. Hides its youth quite well, showing off the more medicinal and smoky side of Bowmore without any overt cask influence getting in the way. It's surprisingly smoky actually, heading towards that smoky bacon side of things that reminds me of some (very) smoky beers I've had in the past - which aren't peat smoked of course, but there are similarities regardless. I don't recall getting that sort of note in a Bowmore before, or the meaty smoked ham notes either, which I'd normally associate more with Caol Ila. Not a negative by any means, it's delicious! It's just a little unusual for this distillery in my experience - but that's the beauty of these single cask independent bottlings! Once again I'm reminded that the distillery owners don't seem to appreciate what they have, requiring you to spend some serious money to see what Bowmore can actually offer. Then again prices on independent bottlings of Bowmore are also very high these days!

Cheers!

Springbank Open Day 2024 Whisky Review!

A recent auction win that I couldn't resist! A 10-year old Springbank that has been fully matured in Fijian rum casks, bottled for the distillery's Open Day during the Campbeltown Festival in May 2024. 

Firstly, let's address the half-sized elephant in the room. For those obsessed with sizes, yes this is a 350ml bottle, and so were the other two Springbank products that were bottled for this year's Open Day. I have absolutely no objection to this whatsoever, and if you're a whisky fan that intends to drink and enjoy rather than flip for profit, neither should you! There are a few important benefits here. The half-bottle means there are more to go around, with 2,200 bottles only available from the distillery shop during the Open Day, and limited to one per person. Obviously that would've been halved if it had been bottled in 700ml format, which in theory means that more people will get to taste & enjoy this whisky than they would've otherwise. Secondly, it means the bottles are cheaper from the original seller, retailing for just £35. Thirdly, it means they're a much less attractive proposition for the flippers that have tried their hardest to bastardise Springbank over the last few years. That point makes me a little hypocritical since I'm perpetuating the problem. I purchased this very bottle from a secondary market auction site here in Australia, which someone had obviously flipped for profit, and I paid significantly more than that original price of roughly $70 AUD. So they got what they wanted. I paid $160 for this 350ml bottle, but considering what it is, where it came from, and the relative rarity in this part of the world, I don't think that's unreasonable. For those playing overseas, the standard core range Springbank 10-year old at 46% retails at $220-250 AUD here. Yes I said "retails", that's not secondary pricing! Which is utterly ridiculous, and it's just not worth the money anymore. The core range 12-year old from Springbank's sister distillery Glengyle, also owned by J&A Mitchell and producing Kilkerran single malt, is far more reasonable thanks to a different distributor here in Australia, but I'll concede that it's also not as popular. It should be, but never mind that for now. Moving right along!

Springbank's Open Day occurs during the Campbeltown Festival, which is Campbeltown's equivalent of the Feis Ile over on Islay, which usually starts on the day that the Campbeltown Festival ends. Springbank, Glengyle/Kilkerran, and Glen Scotia all have their open days with special tastings and events, and all bottle special releases to mark the occasion. Just like Feis Ile, this means the town of Campbeltown is inundated with thirsty whisky folk, booking out the small town's accommodation and transport services, and queuing for hours to get their hands on a bottle of something special. And just like Feis Ile, many of those bottles are promptly sent to the various auction sites to be flipped for profit. Glen Scotia take a similar approach to Laphroaig or Ardbeg for their commemorative bottling, choosing to do a much larger worldwide release that tends to be something different from their normal core range. Kilkerran and Springbank's releases are much smaller, but are generally not single casks. This year's Kilkerran was the first 20-year old single malt, since the distillery opened in May 2004. It was initially matured in rum casks for 10-years followed by another 10-years in ex-bourbon casks, and retailed for £140. These days Springbank release three bottlings for each Campbeltown Festival, one for each of their single malts; the namesake Springbank, the unpeated and triple-distilled Hazelburn, and the heavily peated and double-distilled Longrow. All are labelled as Open Day bottlings, with fairly nondescript white labels and plain glass bottles rather than the brands' usual packaging. For 2024 the Hazelburn was an 8-year old Bourbon cask & Oloroso sherry cask matured, and the Longrow was a 16-year old that was matured in Ruby port casks. And the Springbank that we're looking at here is a 10-year old that was fully matured in rum casks and bottled at 57.1% ABV. 

Springbank's namesake spirit is distilled from the distillery's floor malted barley that is lightly peated to roughly 15 ppm, and it's distilled a sum total of 2.5-times thanks to a complex system where some of the feints - the undesirable part that comes through late in the distillation after the spirit cut has been taken - from the second / intermediate still are distilled a third time in the distillery's third still. See image above for a handy diagram that (slightly) helps! One of my all-time favourite Springbanks was a 14-year old "Cage Bottling" that was fully matured in a refill rum cask - see here for that review. So when I spotted that this 2024 Open Day bottling was fully matured in rum casks, my interest was piqued. I didn't love the 15-year old Rum Cask bottling from 2018, so I wasn't going to go silly on it when a few bottles popped up at auction, just in case. There's an interesting point of difference here though. For the first time, Springbank has specified where these rum casks came from. While they haven't specified the exact distillery that was responsible for the casks' previous incumbent, they've told us that they came from Fiji in the South Pacific. There's only one rum distillery in this small island nation; South Pacific Distilleries, which is found in the city of Lautoka near the north-west coast of Fiji's main island. Trading as Rum Co. of Fiji, their aged rums are sold under the brands Bati or Ratu. The Ratu brand is made from Fijian molasses and is distilled in both column and pot stills, and is aged for at least 5-years in American oak ex-bourbon barrels. A couple of this distillery's rums have been bottled and sold by Cadenhead's, the independent bottler that is owned by J&A Mitchell, Springbank's owners. So it all makes sense. I'm yet to try any Fijian rum, but from what I can see they tend to be quite heavy in style, with parallels drawn to Jamaican and other Caribbean rums. Let's see what effect they've had on this little 10-year old Springbank, shall we? 

Springbank Open Day 2024, 10-Year Old, 57.1%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Bottled for Campbeltown Festival 2024, fully matured in Fijian rum casks. 2,200 x 350ml bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Juicy, herbal, sweet, nippy. Pineapple juice, white pepper, green chilli flakes, paw paw (papaya) in syrup. Dried leafy herbs, brown sugar, fried bananas. Szechuan pepper, pear drops, yeasty bread dough, lemon peel. Honey & aniseed around the edges. 

Texture: Medium weight, just. Sweet, fruity, juicy. And quite hot. 

Taste: The rum influence is obvious, sweet & funky. Overripe tropical fruit, caramelised brown sugar, more Szechuan pepper. Pineapple juice & jalapeno chillies. Honey, lemon peel, and a bit of vanilla cream heading into the finish. 

Finish: Medium length. Vanilla cream & lemon peel carry through, with more sugary rum sweetness. White pepper, pineapple juice, jalapeno chilli flakes, and malt biscuits. Overripe tropical fruity and a touch of drying sea salt to round things out.  

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Quite sweet and very rum cask-driven, a little too much so for my tastes. I don't mind a good Caribbean molasses rum on occasion, and I love a peated malt matured in a rum cask, but these rum casks feel too sugary and too assertive, and too dominant. They've killed off the Springbank distillery character, which has then simplified the whole experience. The whisky seems quite raw and young as well, maybe more so than the 5-year old Society bottling that was released a couple of years ago - which was the same ABV!  It's certainly a different style of Springbank which is probably why they chose to bottle it for the Open Day, but it also could've passed for a younger Hazelburn. It's not a complete miss mind you, this is a flavoursome dram, and I'm sure fans of sweeter & lighter rums would enjoy it more. But personally when I'm having a Springbank, I want it to taste like a Springbank!

This makes two rum cask Springbank releases that haven't blown me away, one that I liked much more (the old brown label bottling mentioned above) and one (a cage bottle, admittedly) refill rum cask that is still one of my all-time favourites. There was also a delicious Longrow Open Day bottling a few years ago, but I'mtalking about the Springbank make here. I've never thought rum casks were as "hit and miss" as some others proclaim, but maybe that's because I've mainly enjoyed heavily peated whiskies that had spent some time in rum casks - where the casks are more easily kept at bay by a more assertive spirit character. But Springbank is hardly a wallflower... More research required!

Cheers!

Springbank 8-Year Old 1980s Whisky Review!

The oldest Springbank bottling that I've tasted to date! After first spying a bottle at a bar in Tokyo in 2023, a bottle appeared on a local auction site almost a year later, and I couldn't let it go - despite the high price tag, it was worth it! 

Springbank is quite popular among whisky enthusiasts in Japan, and there are a lot of older official bottlings to be found in some of the fantastic whisky bars there. It's not uncommon to see bottlings from the early 2000s or the 2010s sitting on bar shelves - or on the actual bar top in many cases - but as spoiled for choice as any whisky lover is in Japan, it's still rather unusual to see one quite this old. This 8-year old was bottled for Japan in the mid-1980s, somewhere between 1983 and 1988, as far as I can deduce - thanks to a couple of Japanese bar owner/operators who helped confirm that! That means it was distilled in the 1970s, at a time when the Scotch whisky world was unrecognisable compared to what it is today. It also means that this whisky was bottled in the darkest time for Scotch whisky since World War II, in 1983 alone a massive number of distilleries had been mothballed, many of which were demolished altogether. Diageo alone closed 15 of its distilleries, ranging from now-famous names like Port Ellen and Brora to obscurities like Coleburn and Banff. Even Springbank itself was closed at the time this whisky was bottled, since production ceased in 1979 and didn't start up again until 1987. This was all at a time when single malt official bottlings were still a new thing and blended Scotch whisky was still very much at the helm of the industry - it still is, of course, making up more than 80% of global Scotch whisky sales. Interestingly though when Springbank reopened in 1987 they made the decision to stop supplying to blenders and to focus on single malts, which was very unusual at the time. They did continue to sell casks though, up until the mid-1990s I believe. 

This particular official bottling of 8-year old Springbank is "only" bottled at 43% ABV, which is still a preferred strength in Japan, although there were a number of Springbanks bottled at 43% at and prior to this time. Interestingly the non-chill filtration disclaimer that we're all familiar with these days is printed on the back label of this pear-shaped bottle, but I can only tell you that thanks to the magic of Google Translate - the entirety of the back label is written in Japanese. It is also stated as being natural colour, even going so far as to say "which is why the colour appears lighter". This just goes to show that Springbank was ahead of the curve with natural presentation and declaring it as such right there on the bottle, even forty years ago. And that's at a bottling strength of 43%, remember, rather than the 46% (and above) mark where most contemporary producers will happily skip chill filtration thanks to the higher level of alcohol keeping more of those lovely hazing compounds dissolved in the whisky, or "in solution" as the chemists would say. 

Now, the big question with old bottlings like this is always "what was different back then?". Sometimes there are overt changes in production and/or policy like switching from 100% Golden Promise barley, or switching from floor malted barley to 100% commercially malted barley, or switching from direct-fired to steam heated stills, or other more modern equipment. Then there's the added complications that are often a murky subject, like the use of paxarette in sherry casks, or the use of a different yeast strain, changes in fermentation times or distillation cut points, and that sort of thing. When it comes to Springbank though, it's all a little more challenging because barely anything will have changed, production-wise or equipment-wise, in those 40-years. Obviously there were also industry-wide changes like cask sources, yeast strains, barley varieties, and the general regulatory and environmental stuff. The big glaring difference in this bottling and all that were distilled around this time is something that is often overlooked with older Springbanks. While we might assume that the distillery has always malted their own barley in-house, they actually stopped floor-malting their barley for over three decades in the second-half of the 20th century. According to the Malt Whisky Yearbook they switched to commercially malted barley in 1960 and the malting floors weren't recommissioned until 1992, meaning that anything distilled between those dates was made from barley that was malted elsewhere. The interesting and mysterious thing here is that this date range covers all of the legendary old Local Barley bottlings that were distilled in the 1960s and bottled in the 1990s, and the rear label on those mega-expensive unicorn bottlings does state that the barley was malted at the distillery. So either they made an exception for those 1960s local barley distillation runs and re-opened the malting floors for a limited time, or the date range is slightly incorrect and they closed the malting floors in the mid-1960s. 

Something that we can't really allow for here is the effect that 40-odd years in a glass bottle has had on this whisky - while whisky doesn't continue ageing once bottled thanks to the higher alcohol level in spirits and the inert glass used, such long periods - decades - do have a different effect that is rather difficult to pin down; known as "Old Bottle Effect" or "OBE" among aficionados. This is generally thought to be more pronounced in bottles that are sealed with corks, which aren't perfectly airtight, which will also cause evaporation over time and in sub-optimal storage conditions i.e. swings in temperature and humidity. Screwcap bottles like this Springbank are still affected though and evaporation can still occur. When I picked it up this bottle's fill level was roughly the same as that of the bottle pictured below, which would've accelerated this effect - it's mainly the alcohol (ethanol) that evaporates since it's more volatile. Parafilm your old bottles people, even if they're screwcaps! But even if evaporation wasn't a factor, there's still air in the bottle between the liquid and the closure - known as the "headspace". It's all difficult to quantify though because there are just so many variables involved. Even if the same person were able to taste the exact same whisky a decade or two apart, their palate will have changed, as will their memory of the previous encounter with the whisky, and it's that subjectivity which makes it impossible to compare and contrast between an OBE-affected whisky and a non-affected whisky. 

Springbank 8-year old for Japan, bottled 1980s, 43.0%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Bottled 1983-1988, presumably matured in refill ex-bourbon casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour (declared on label). 

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Soft, fruity & sweet, clean. Lovely malted barley cereal notes, thick honey, fresh red apples. White pepper, icing sugar, and candied lemon peel. More time brings out some dry old oak, subtle earthy peatiness, a lick of salt, and a lovely fresh minerality - beach pebbles? It may be soft & clean for a Springbank, but there's still plenty going on!

Texture: Medium weight. Lightly oily, sweet, honeyed, relatively clean. Deliciously soft & silky. I'd have to assume that the ABV has dropped slightly over that 40-years, but regardless there's no heat whatsoever. 

Taste: More thick honey, sweet malted barley, candied lemon peel & icing sugar sweetness. It's more citrusy here with some lemon cake icing/frosting, a little marzipan too. Red apple skins, soft earthy peat, white pepper, and a soft "dunnage" minerality & earthiness. 

Finish: Medium length, just. That soft earthy peat fades into a light chalky & gravelly minerality, followed by the red apples from the nose - but they're slightly oxidised (browning) now. Lemon icing again, sea salt, and that lovely earthy dunnage "funk" that we all love in Springbank - it's much softer and cleaner than a contemporary bottling, though. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely! Very soft & subtle compared to a modern Springbank, which would partly be due to the lower ABV, plus being bottled 40-years ago perhaps. It doesn't suffer from that lower bottling strength though, aside from the length of finish perhaps. Whereas some of these older lower strength bottlings can devolve into watery and muted experiences, in this Springbank the nice oily texture is there on the palate, while the complexity is still there on the nose - no doubt helped by the natural presentation. It's definitely lighter and cleaner than a contemporary Springbank, but it isn't muted by any means. Aside form differences in production or desired style of spirit, that could also be intentional since the Japanese preference tends to lean towards sweeter, lighter, and more refined whiskies that are more "easy drinking". I'd have to assume that was even more the case back in the 1980s when Suntory was only just starting to release single malts and long before highballs had become a staple serve in Japan. 

As liquid time capsules go, this one is a treasure! 

Cheers!

Hazelburn Society 16-Year Old Ruby Port Whisky Review!

A port cask matured Hazelburn bottled in 2023 for the Springbank Society. Interestingly it was matured for 13-years in refill port casks before a 3-year secondary maturation in first-fill port casks. My first port cask Hazelburn, and it should make for a great Christmas Eve dram! 

Hazelburn is Springbank's unpeated single malt which is triple-distilled, as opposed to the standard Springbank which is lightly peated and distilled 2.5-times, and the heavily peated Longrow which is double-distilled. Both Hazelburn and Longrow respectively only make up 10% of Springbank's annual production, which is already a small amount that is nowhere near enough. Despite the relative scarcity neither seem to attract the flippers and hoarders as much as the distillery's namesake single malt does, which is a good thing! Believe it or not this ignorance also applies to rarities like cage bottles and Springbank Society bottlings of Longrow & Hazelburn, which are much rarer but seem to fly under the radar in comparison. The Springbank Society has been around for decades, essentially it's the inner circle for fans of the distillery. Unlike similar programs such as the Ardbeg Committee or the Friends of Laphroaig which are now nothing more than mailing lists and loyalty programs, members of the Springbank Society are offered bottlings that are actually exclusive and actually limited. Membership is required to purchase Society bottlings and they're only offered by the distillery itself, and membership isn't as easy to obtain as you may think - aside from paying a joining fee, due to massive demand the distillery closed the Society to new members a few years ago. There's no news on when, or even if, it'll be reopening. Unless you were lucky enough to get in on the action before this closure, your only real method of purchasing a Society bottling is to visit the secondary whisky auctions or other secondary sellers. You could argue that the distillery waited too long to stop accepting new Society members, and given the stock constraints that they are still dealing with there's essentially no point in re-opening that door anytime soon. Even now Society members need to be very quick to buy one of these exclusive bottlings straight from the source. 

There have been around 35-40 Society bottlings to date, and I've been lucky enough to taste a few examples, including one or two Longrows and Hazelburns. As you'd expect from Springbank these limited releases are often matured in an unusual cask type or bottled at an unusual age - two recent Springbank Society bottlings have been just 5-years old, one ex-bourbon cask and one ex-sherry cask. In the distant past Society releases were single cask bottlings, which changed to small batch releases of 2-5 casks vatted together, and the more recent examples have been larger at the 2,000-ish bottle mark. They're mostly cask strength as you'd expect, and are always in a fairly non-descript plain bottle with plain labelling and packaging. This particular Springbank Society Hazelburn is a 16-year old that was distilled in June 2007 and bottled in September 2023 at a cask strength of 50.8% ABV. Thanks to the 350ml bottle size there were 1,610 bottles released - it makes much more sense to do that than to release 800 x 700ml bottles, right? I haven't been able to find an exact retail price on original release, but word is they were around £50, which sounds about right. Secondary pricing is of course higher, but not as high as it would've been if these were 700ml bottles and if there'd been half the amount of bottles released. I think the 350ml bottles are a great move for Springbank Society bottlings, since the smaller bottles encourage opening & enjoying rather than flipping or hoarding. 

Port cask Springbanks tend to be very popular, probably because it's an unusual cask type in Campbeltown whisky and is still a less-common cask type in Scotch whisky overall. Personally in terms of official bottlings I've only had one Springbank and one Longrow example to date, so I can't really comment on the wider merits of port cask Springbanks. I will say though that the Springbank example I've had from the old brown label cask finished series was delicious, while the Longrow example, the 11-year old port cask from the 'Red' series of wine-heavy Longrows, was OK but not great. The Longrow Red series has now been discontinued and is due to be replaced by a 100 Proof (UK Proof, 57.1% ABV) series, which is great news if you ask me since the "Reds" tended to be far too heavy on the wine influence. Despite Longrow being quite a robust spirit on paper it struggled to hold up to most of those wine casks, even when a relatively short finishing period was involved. Being triple distilled and unpeated, Hazelburn is of course much lighter than the heavily peated Longrow, so it'll be interesting to see how this example holds up to what is certainly a heavy port cask influence - as stated above, it was matured in refill port casks for 13-years and then finished in first-fill Ruby port casks for the following 3-years. I've liked most of the Oloroso sherry cask Hazelburns that I've tasted to date and loved the 2022 15-year old in particular, which certainly wasn't light on the cask influence but maintained a great overall balance. Oloroso sherry (dry) and port (sweet) are very different from each other though, particularly Ruby port which is younger and sweeter compared to the Tawny port casks which we see more of in the whisky world. That's because most Ruby port doesn't spend much - if any - time in wood, tending to be stored/aged in stainless steel or concrete tanks instead, so we can assume that the Ruby port aged in these casks was of good quality. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky lover. Let's get to it!

Springbank Society Hazelburn 16-year old, 50.8%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Distilled 6/2007, bottled 9/2023. Matured in refill port casks for 13-years, finished in first-fill Ruby port casks for 3-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 1,610 x 350ml bottles. 

Colour: Dark red with pink tinges. 

Nose: Rich, jammy, lightly floral. Bit of a nose prickle too. Musty red grapes, damp old wood, new leather, and red fruit jams - strawberry, raspberry, and plum. Hints of Turkish delight (rosewater) and sweeter orange peel. Becomes spicy & herbal with more time, cinnamon, black tea leaves, dried sage & rosemary. Not overly sweet so far. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich and fruity, but nowhere near as sweet as I'd feared. Quite dry and spicy in fact. Slight heat. 

Taste: Fruity & rich. Red grape must again, and more leather. Raspberry, strawberry, and plum jams. Wood spices, black tea leaves, dried rosemary & sage. Bitter dark chocolate truffles coated with cinnamon. 

Finish: Medium length. Drying and astringent with leather & black tea leaves, wood spices, and dried herbs. Dried raspberries and more bitter dark chocolate.

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: I know that seems like a low score for a Springbank Society bottling, but this one is always going to come down to personal preference. I can see it being quite divisive. While it's very much cask dominated, rather than overly sweet it's instead surprisingly dry, spicy, and tannic. I don't mind dry whiskies and don't mind some mild tannins in those whiskies, but like the recent 11-year old Longrow Red mentioned above, there's still too much cask influence here for my personal tastes. The Hazelburn spirit has been completely overwhelmed, even more so than the aforementioned Longrow was - which is no surprise. But while the Longrow was overly sweet and floral, this Hazelburn is almost the opposite, dry, spicy, astringent, and tannic. That could be because the Longrow was Tawny port casks and this is Ruby port casks, but Ruby port is generally the sweetest variety in port wine, so I can't be sure. 

I'd say that port cask lovers would find this one fascinating, and it's still a tasty Hazelburn. I just would've preferred that they left it in those refill port casks rather than giving it a secondary maturation in first-fill port casks. One of the best Longrows I've ever tasted was a Cadenhead's refill port cask, which still had some cask influence but really let the spirit shine. And that's exactly what I want to see when it comes to Campbeltown whiskies.

Cheers!