Springbank 12 Cask Strength Batch 1 Whisky Review!

A blast from the past that I've never tried before! Batch One of the excellent Springbank 12-year old Cask Strength, bottled way back in 2010. They're currently up to Batch twenty-five!

This older Springbank is from the days when the 12-year old Cask Strength and all Springbank was much easier to get your hands on in Australia, which was the case right up until 2020 or so when all things J&A Mitchell went insane. Surely that was the worst thing to happen to humanity that year, right? The entire Springbank core range, the local barley releases, and the limited release cask finishes all lasted much longer than they do these days, and a lot of Hazelburn and Longrow releases barely sold at all. Nowadays even the standard core range rarely makes it to shelves at all, whether those shelves be physical or digital. The distillery are doing everything they can to help with availability during this insane spike in demand, and their pricing has barely shifted at all despite the huge increase in sales and the many retailers and importers that are price gouging on anything Springbank. Unfortunately for those of us who remember the before times - I'm going to get "I was into Springbank before it was cool" t-shirts printed - the 12-year old Cask Strength seems to be the worst hit by this massive surge in popularity. Ignoring the Local Barley releases, at least, although they seem to have calmed down a bit now. If you ask me the "12 CS" was always the sweet spot for an excellent Springbank at a very reasonable price - commonly selling under $140 AUD back then, when the "entry level" 10-year old was around $90-100. Unfortunately it now retails for $250 or more, if you can even get your hands on it at all, and our importer does not receive stock of every batch released. But considering that the entry level 10-year old Springbank is now retailing for a ridiculous $200 AUD, that's still not such a raw deal. Obviously availability is more of a hurdle than pricing in this case, unless you're insane enough to entertain the price-gouging "retailers" who are attempting to get over $400 for one of these bottles. The importer should not be entertaining them by selling them stock. 

Just to clarify, this Batch 1 Springbank 12-year old was not the first cask strength Springbank official bottling, far from it. Nor was it the first 12-year old official bottling, there have been quite a few including some at 46% and some at 57% (100 Proof). Obviously those earlier bottlings are now the stuff of collectors, and even these earlier batches of the 12 Cask Strength go for ridiculous money on the auction sites, often over £300 plus fees & shipping. Which after shipping to Australia and being reamed by the customs department, you'd probably be looking at around $900-1,000 AUD. Absolutely mental. Back in these early batches the 12-year old Cask Strength was 100% sherry cask matured in both first-fill and refill Oloroso sherry casks. This was the case until 2015's Batch 10 when ex-bourbon casks were added, initially in a proportion of 30%, which then changed to 50% in late 2018 which Batch 18. The cask make-up has continued to fluctuate since then - including a fantastic 100% ex-bourbon cask Batch 23 (reviewed here), with one instalment even having some red wine & port casks in the mix with Batch 21 (reviewed here). The 12 Cask Strength has never had a batch code printed on the label, so the laser-printed bottling date on the bottle and the ABV are your only guides as to which batch you're actually looking at. You then take that info to google and/or whiskybase.com, and you'll get your answer. J&A Mitchell have now made the same change to sister distillery Glengyle's Kilkerran Heavily Peated range, which from Batch Ten onwards will no longer have a batch code printed on the label. With the Springbank 12-year old there was one major change back in 2014, when the labels were modernised slightly from the old black label with red 'S' as pictured below, to a solid red label with white 'S' inside a red circle. So if you're looking at a black label Springbank 12-year old it's Batch 13 (released early 2014) or earlier, and if it's the (slightly) more modern red label it's Batch 14 (released late 2014) or later. 

This very first batch, released over 14 years ago now, has always been on my wishlist. Batch One of Springbank 12 Cask Strength, released in March 2010 with an outturn of 6,000 bottles at a cask strength of 54.6% ABV. Obviously it's natural colour and non-chill filtered, as with all single malts bottled by J&A Mitchell. Batch 1 was a vatting of 60% first-fill sherry hogsheads (250-litre casks) and 40% refill sherry butts (500-litre casks). As you can see from the colour though, those first-fill casks can't have been particularly active, which is definitely a good thing! This mix of first-fill ("fresh" in Springbank-ese) to refill sherry casks stayed constant until that introduction of ex-bourbon casks with Batch 10. The actual bottlings still varied a great deal of course, as has always been the way at Springbank. Consistency isn't a goal here, and nor should it be! Both character and quality do vary in these fantastically old school whiskies, which just keeps things interesting for us geeks. Speaking of which, the sample for this review came from a very generous fellow whisky nerd over the water in New Zealand who has shared some extremely special samples with me over the years. While I do try to return the favour, I still can't thank her enough when it comes to drams like this. Let's get to it!

Springbank 12 Cask Strength Batch 1, 54.6%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Bottled March 2010. 60% first-fill sherry hogsheads, 40% refill sherry butts. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 6,000 bottles. 

Colour: Pale copper. 

Nose: Yep, it's proper Springbank! Salty, rich, fruity, quite savoury. A little softer than I expected, but then it's been a long time since I last tasted one of the 100% sherry batches. Ripe red apples with a little dust, dark & thick caramel fudge sauce. Sea salt flakes, apricot jam, a little fresh white peach. Lime juice. Old oily rags & sooty fireplaces, greasy old metal, damp dunnage warehouses with gravel, packed earth, and dusty old wood. Salted nuts & aniseed around the edges. 

Texture: Heavy weight. Chewy & thick, rich & savoury. No heat at all. 

Taste: Chewy & thick caramel fudge sauce, heavily salted caramel this time. Touch of that apricot jam, and it's on some buttered burnt toast now. Damp malted barley around the edges. Sooty fireplaces & dirty old rags. The red apples are stewed now, with some currants and baking spices mixed in. Dried bitter orange peel. Sooty & oily peat smoke with that damp & musty dunnage warehouse "funk". 

Finish: Long length. Big sea salt, stone fruit, spiced butter caramel chocolates. Dirty old diesel fuel, oily & sooty. More bitter orange peel and more sea salt, slightly drying. Dirty, dusty, musty. Lime juice, salted caramel, and dusty red apples to finish. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Just delicious. I'd almost hoped that it wouldn't be. This 12yo ticks all of the Springbank boxes that you could wish for, without focussing on any one area in particular. That said, aside from that salted caramel fudge sauce this is quite a savoury dram, with more sea salt & peat smoke than I remember finding in any recent batch of the 12-year old Cask Strength. Arguably less cask influence than most of those, too. Which is certainly no complaint. You do have to work hard to find a batch of the '12CS' that isn't a good dram, but some are merely good, while some are great, and some are excellent. And this, the very first batch, is one of those. As usual, tasting something like this is sadly a little bittersweet! 

The modern Springbanks, Hazelburns, Longrows, and Kilkerrans can be just as good though. The magic of Springbank, and the magic of Campbeltown, is certainly real. The big question is, are these older bottles worth hunting down at auction and paying exorbitant amounts for? It's a tough call. I just wish I'd had the foresight and the cashflow to buy more of it back in the "before times"...

Cheers!