Springbank 12 Claret Wood Whisky Review!

A red wine finished cask strength Springbank, with a pretty serious colour, bottled nearly 10 years ago. If memory serves this is actually one of the oldest Springbank bottlings (by bottling date) that I've tasted so far, which is very exciting!

This Springbank is - or rather was - part of the fleeting and much-celebrated old "Wood Finish" series of bottlings which has undergone a change in both concept (from cask finishing to full-term maturation) and packaging in the last couple of years. The contemporary bottlings, with their updated packaging and move to full maturation, were a 12-year old Burgundy cask matured, a 14-year old Bourbon cask matured, and the recent 15-year old Rum cask matured, which have all been very tasty. But this is one of the "old school" bottlings from the previous generation of releases, sporting the old hand-written-style brown labels and very basic packaging. Many of the more exotic cask finishings in this series were one-offs, and this is one of them: a 12-year old cask strength Springbank that was matured for nine years in refill ex-bourbon casks, and finished for three years in first-fill Claret red wine casks. Despite their traditional outward appearance and small production output, Springbank certainly aren't afraid of experimentation, and even in today's veritable ocean of cask finishings a red wine-finished Campbeltown malt is not something you see very often. That said, with only three distilleries in the town you'd have to expect that! It's always interesting to see how Springbank's dirty, funky, farmyard-y malt works with these exotic cask types, especially so for myself in this case since I'm generally not a fan of most non-fortified wines, particularly the red variety. Although the Burgundy cask-matured expression that I mentioned above was very delicious, and I'm a huge Springbank fan, so there's no real danger here!

What is undeniably traditional with this distillery is their production methods, since this is one of the very few distilleries in Scotland, and indeed the world, where every step of the process - sans the growing of the barley itself - happens on site. From floor-malting 100% of their barley requirements, to milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, maturing and bottling, it all happens on the distillery grounds. Some of that floor-malted barley also goes fifty metres down the road to Campbeltown's third distillery, Glengyle, to produce their Kilkerran single malts. Both distilleries are privately owned, along with independent bottler Cadenhead's, by J&A Mitchell & Company. Being a Springbank single malt, this is the lightly peated (12-15 ppm) and 2.5-times distilled spirit from the distillery, as opposed to the un-peated and triple-distilled Hazelburn, and the heavily peated (50-55 ppm) and double-distilled Longrow. That 2.5-times distillation, in very basic terms, is derived from a portion of the low wines (the result of the first distillation) being distilled three times, while the remainder is only distilled twice before being directed to the spirit receiver. Springbank spirit makes up around 80% of the distillery's total production each year, with Hazelburn & Longrow spirits halving the remaining 20% between them. When you consider the distillery's total annual production capacity of just 750,000 litres of spirit (with actual production being under that), it certainly helps to remind you just how small this operation is, and how little Hazelburn and Longrow is actually out there!

One interesting thing here is that Claret isn't actually its own wine variety. It's a generic (largely-British) term for the red wines either coming from, or simply made in the style of, the Bordeaux region of south-western France. So these casks could have held any of the main grape varieties used in the region, most likely Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc, or a blend of different grapes, or they've simply held wine that was similar in style to those varieties. Either way they've definitely had a big effect on this single malt, both in colour and flavour! This Claret Wood Springbank was distilled in May 1997 and bottled back in February 2010, at a cask strength of 54.4% ABV, with an out-turn of 9,360 bottles. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, as is the case with everything the distillery produces. Since this is not an easy whisky to find these days, being bottled a decade ago, the sample for this review came from a swap with a fellow whisky nerd. Let's do this!

Springbank Claret Wood, 12-year old, 54.4%. Campbeltown, Scotland.
Distilled 5/97, matured for nine years in refill ex-bourbon casks, finished for three years in first-fill Claret (Bordeaux) red wine casks, bottled 2/2010. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 9,360 bottles.

Colour: Very dark amber, with rust-red tinges.

Nose: Sweet, musty & grape-y. Red apple skins, nutmeg and cinnamon, with sweet spearmint around the edges. Oily wood polish, musty dark grapes, and a little muddy peat. Some sweet stone fruit in syrup and some soft old leather further in. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, quite thick and reasonably oily. Some heat to it.

Taste: Not nearly as sweet as the nose suggested. More musty red grapes, a little hot ash, and a welcome dose of the Springbank "funk" dunnage warehouse note. Muddy peat again, and a pinch of chilli salt. The apple skins, wood spices and stone fruit are there too, but they've receded. A touch of chocolate mousse in the background too.

Finish: Long length. More wood spice, chilli salt and leather. The stone fruit follows through, but it's not sweet here, while the grapes are there too but they're in the background now. Leather, more wood spice and a few old cherries winding up.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Very tasty, and a bit of an outlier for Springbank - I can't say I've ever tasted one like it, and that includes the 12-year old Burgundy release from a few years ago. In fact aside from the trademark dunnage 'funk' and muddy peat notes I don't think I'd pick it as a Springbank at all. Although the empty glass does tell a different story - as is often the case. None of that is a negative though, it's just a different style compared to what I'd expected. Which is the name of the game, after all. There's still plenty of flavour and plenty of character on offer, but given the choice, I think I'd be reaching for the 'regular' 12-year old Cask Strength over this one. There's just more Springbank and Campbeltown DNA on show there, regardless of the batch number.

Still, this Claret Wood finish is (or was) a great opportunity to see a different style of Springbank to what we may expect. And thankfully the wine cask influence wasn't too intrusive. Springbank are never one to rest on their laurels, and whiskies like this just keep proving that point.

Cheers!