Part two of what's turning out to be a Springtime run of Springbank reviews. This time, the now-infamous and controversial recent addition to the Springbank Local Barley line-up.
I passed on this whisky when it landed in Australia. I had been excited about it given the favourable reviews from Europe, and the collector in me wanted to keep the Local Barley line-up complete, although the decision to fully mature this one in first-fill sherry casks did seem a little odd. Then it landed at $399 AUD, with some resellers adding another $100-150 on top of that already huge price tag - remember that this is a 10-year old whisky with 8,500 bottles released. While it's beyond my usual comfort level for a bottle of whisky, I have paid that amount or more for younger and/or NAS whiskies before, and that's around a $100-150 increase over the 2019 10-year old Local Barley release. So why did I decide to pass on this Springbank? Across the Tasman around six months earlier this whisky sold to retail in New Zealand for $148 NZD ($143 AUD), and it currently retails in the U.S (with more buying power and of course a larger allocation than both Australia and New Zealand) for the equivalent of around $220 AUD. And he original retail pricing in Britain was around 90 pounds, or $170 AUD. Yes, shipping from Europe/Britain to Australia is expensive - but not dissimilar to shipping to New Zealand. Yes, our excise/duty on spirits and tax rates are obscenely high, but they're not hundreds of dollars per bottle high, and those international prices clearly show that it's not the distillery who's to blame for the expensive pricing in Australia. There just has to be a massive chunk of profit in that mark-up, and unfortunately we can only assume that it's due to the importer watching the secondary market in Europe while they waited for delivery, knowing that they didn't secure enough stock to satisfy demand in the current climate, and deciding to cash in. Businesses need to make profit of course, and many distributors and resellers do watch secondary market pricing and adjust pricing accordingly, but in this case I felt it was excessive. Unfortunately this whisky still sold out almost instantly, despite it arriving when things had begun to slow down following the madness of mid-2020 to early-2021, which has essentially proven that they made the right decision from a business point of view, or at least that their decision was justified. We also need to mention the European secondary pricing here - these bottles are now going for over 500 pounds on the usual British auction sites, which is absolutely insane for a 10-year old single malt with 8,500 bottles released nine months ago.
Pricing and secondary market pricing aside, this is still a controversial whisky because this is a local barley Springbank, where you'd want to barley itself to show through in some way, or at least be discernible from a regular release. It's the sourcing of local Kintyre barley, floor-malted at the distillery in Campbeltown of course, that separates this series from the rest of this legendary distillery's whiskies. The other five releases in the modern Local Barley series have mostly been matured in ex-bourbon casks, albeit usually with a small amount of sherry or port casks in the mix. So this latest release, which was initially released in late 2020, is a complete departure since it has been fully matured in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks. And as you can see from the dark (natural) colour - which sadly would've been partly responsible for the huge demand and subsequent secondary pricing of this whisky - they've been quite active over those 10-years. Springbank's spirit is no light & ethereal wallflower and we've seen that it can hold up well to just about any cask influence, but first-fill sherry cask maturation is almost always going to hide or dull some of the presence of spirit character, distillery character and barley character in any whisky, even at a young age. Even the big Islay heavyweights aren't immune to being completely overwhelmed by first-fill sherry cask maturation, often turning even the mightiest of heavily peated malts into "sherry bombs". So it seems an odd move for Springbank to release this 100% sherry matured Local Barley when it could've been vatted with other cask types like the majority of bottlings in the series. Maybe there wasn't enough aged stock remaining for them to do that, or maybe they just needed this release - the third release of a 10-year old in the six Local Barley bottlings so far - to stand out from the rest. Obviously the sherry maturation alone does not mean it won't be a good, great or incredible whisky, and I do enjoy a sherry bomb when the time & mood is right, but it's undoubtedly going to show less spirit & distillery character than the preceding bottlings in the Local Barley series.
This sixth 2020/2021 release was also controversial because there was never meant to be a sixth release in the series - the fifth, the 2019 10-year old (reviewed here), was reported to be the final release in the modern Local Barley series. But this latest release, filled into casks back in June 2010 - six years before even the first modern Local Barley (the incredible 16-year old) was released, shows that there was a change of plans very early on, and I'd say these pretty labels which hark back to the original Local Barley series from the 1960s will now be a regular fixture in the Springbank limited releases. All six releases to date have been bottled at cask strength, with age statements and without chill filtration or added colouring, and of course all were lightly peated and 2.5-times distilled in the normal Springbank fashion. In the case of the 2020 release the barley variety used was Belgravia, grown on Glencraigs farm which is located on the A83 halfway between the Kintyre west coast and the "wee toon" on the eastern side. Cask strength in this case is 55.6% ABV with 8,500 bottles released. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd. On to the big question, then. Am I going to regret my decision to pass on a bottle? Might as well find out!
Belgravia barley grown on Glencraigs Farm, Kintyre. Distilled June 2010, 100% fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks, bottled December 2020 at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 8,500 bottles.
Colour: Dark bronze. Not as dark as it looks in the above photo.
Nose: Rich, deep & spicy. Raisins soaked in dark rum, fruit & nut chocolate, orange peel, molasses/treacle and baking spices. Touch of sea salt adds a little freshness, reminiscent of salted honey. More salted roasted nuts and touches of cured meats (rancio) further on.
Texture: Heavy weight. Big, rich & very oily. No spirit-y heat on the palate, but it's quite the warmer.
Taste: Rum & raisin ice cream, salted roasted nuts, touch of rum/brandy-spiked heavy cream. Brown sugar, Russian caramel fudge, orange peel and baked stone fruit. Black pepper, touch of salt and more cured meats (rancio).
Finish: Long length. Soft earthy peat behind chilli flake & clove spice, touch of dank musty dunnage warehouse (dusty old wood & damp earthen floors) and orange liqueur. Rum-soaked raisins, orange peel and milk chocolate to finish.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Yes, it's a sherry bomb, and no, as predicted there's not a lot of distillery character or spirit character in comparison to the earlier Local Barley releases - and there's no barley character to be found. But this is still a very tasty whisky, make no mistake. If you're a fan of sherry-heavy whiskies this will be right up your alley, particularly if you're also not a big fan of Campbeltown's dirtier side. Thankfully this isn't an overly sweet dram, and it doesn't feel like those "modern" rushed-job seasoned sherry bombs from Speyside that will often blow your head off. There's still a good amount of character and maturity in this Springbank, although it definitely sticks out from the rest of the Local Barley series as the most cask-forward and least barley/spirit characterful. Yes the above is a solid score, but I'd also put it under the Local Barley 16-year old and 9-year old, on par with the other two 10-year olds, and I still haven't tasted the 11-year old. I would've preferred more (or all) refill sherry casks in the mix myself, but that's just me. Maybe we'll see one of those in the future?
Do I regret passing on a bottle at $399 or more? No, I don't, I'm happy to let this one go. There are plenty of sherry cask whiskies out there that offer the same level, or a higher level, of experience for under half that price. Benromach Peat Smoke Sherry Cask and Kilkerran 8 Year Old 2021 come straight to mind there, and I'd add that both of those have more distillery character on display than this Springbank does, despite also being first-fill sherry cask maturation. But if you managed to get a bottle of this Local Barley Springbank for the original retail pricing in Britain, Europe, New Zealand or the U.S, you've done well. Sadly a good proportion of those bottles will probably never be opened and will be treated as "investments", and many have already been flipped for profit here in Australia despite the very high starting point. As for the European auction pricing, it's just as insane as it was before I'd tried the whisky.
Cheers!
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