Springbank 14 yo Bourbon Wood – 55,8% ABV

Dear friends and followers alike! Yesterday I received a package from Symposion, containing a sample of a new limited release from Springbank! A 14 year old that has been matured solely in bourbon casks (size not stated), a combination of first fill and refill. It has been bottled at (vatting strength of) 55,8% ABV. The number of bottles for this release is 9000 and 534 of these will be released at the state monopoly here in Sweden in two days (the 23rd of November). You can view the product by clicking here. 

Ok, let's see what we have here!

Nose:

When opening the bottle and pouring the whisky a huge peatyness spread throughout the room, but when nosing it from the glass I first get a whiff of saltyness but then first and foremost sugar-y and sour freshly squeezed lemon juice. Below this layer consisting of a mix of salt and sugar/sour is a very, very ”broad” peatyness, drawing mostly towards leather and ”shoes” (with some complex element of brie cheese) but also, infact, a medium-fat vanilla intermingling with something reminding me of rhum and/or rhumraisin, or even something tequila-esque… very interesting indeed, especially the brie cheese element of the peatyness. Finally, shaking the glass vividly to stir up the scents, the centre of the nose is very, very citric. Ok, let’s have a taste!

Taste:

Wow! Peat, salt, peat, salt, more peat and more salt is what I get at the first tasting! Taking another sip, this time holding the whisky in my mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing, I now get (besides all the peat and salt), a very peaty vanilla-ness, there is also some fruit in there, something like vanilla-banana and dried peach (jelly peach candy). When swallowing, the whisky gives lots and lots of warm leather peat (it really, really warms my throat and chest), and a great deal of dryness. There is also something like stable and horses (meaning ”farm”, however that would taste). The aftertaste holds a mixture of peat, smoke, and sweetness from mixed jelly candy (mostly of the color yellow and orange), and ends with, believe it or not, peated lemon curd. 

To sum up:

This is a great dram that I really recommend to anyone who likes a medium-complex peated whisky, with an emphasis on peat, salt, leather and yellow fruits! Yummy, I want more! Big thanks to the people at Symposion for the chance to review this one and to be able to taste it before its release, Sláinte!

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borrowed from whiskybase.com