Springbank 21yo 2019 edition – 46% ABV!

Dear friends, followers, and supporters alike! About a week ago, Peter at Symposion contacted me with the opportunity to review some drams. From the selection available I choose the 2019 edition of Springbank 21 year old. The sample arrived just a few days ago and it felt very exciting since I've never tasted, or reviewed, such an old Springbank!

The recipe/cask composition for this whisky is 45% matured in Port-casks and 55% matured in Rum-casks. (In the sell-sheet I received there is no info to be found regarding type of oak used, nor type of Rum). The whisky has been fully matured in these casks. Before bottling the whisky has been watered/diluted to 46% ABV. This batch consists in total of 3600 bottles, out of which 84 bottles will be released at the swedish state monopoly tomorrow (Thursday the 23rd of May), through a so called web launch. Please click here to view the product. Ok folks, let's analyze!  

  

Nose:

Extremely fat, big, robust and complex! Actually, complex might be an understatement in this case; because this whisky sure has everything on the nose; at the same time as there is a dark and deep sugary sweetness, there is also beautiful fruity notes in the top layer. In the bottom layer we have earth/soil, medium farmhouse/barn-style peat that is bold yet soft, medium heavy fortified wine, cold coffee with milk, hints of mint, and the syrup from maraschino cherries. All of this is surrounded by/coated with a well balanced strength that tickles my nose. On top of that, in the middle layer, we have light vanilla drizzled with melted butter. Moving on into the top layer there is apricot candy, rhubarb cream, and cucumber water (!) intermingling with swedish Punsch (a slight touch of Arrack) matured in european oak. 

Taste:

Starts of very, very soft on sweetness, maltyness (barley), coffee/cream liqueur and melted butter-y-ness. But this softness is quickly interupted by a surprising sting and dryness! The tannins settles and in swoops an elegant wave of herby saltyness, dark vanilla fudge, milk chocolate, seaweed sprinkled with leather from old shoes, and something something that is roasted. Then comes something that reminds me of oloroso sherry with evident hints of freshly squeezed lemon juice. This in turn evolves into swedish Punsch and/or long matured Arrack and rhum-raisin vanilla ice cream which shortly thereafter moves on into dark raisins. The maltyness returns togheter with a whiff of elder flower and a chewy flavour of great quality. 

Some reflections to sum up:

Wow! As already mentioned, the nose is very complex. It is also very ”wow!”. The taste is also very good and boasts of deep matured-ness but somehow not quite as complex as the nose. Hence, I would say the the nose is ”better” and more interesting than the taste. I really wish that the taste/aftertaste had lasted a bit longer, say 10 seconds or so, but hey, you can’t always get what you want. With that said, in my mind there is however no doubt that this whisky is worth what they charge for it here in Sweden!

Finally, a big thanks to Peter at Symposion for the great opportunity to review this whisky before its release! For kind of weekly updates please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my instagram by clicking here, and my twitter-page by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures and videos likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro [at] gmail [dot] com and by stating the source.

Pic borrowed from Springbank

Highland Park – FIRE 15yo 45,2% ABV

Friends and followers! Last weekend I had the great pleasure to once again work the Linköping Whiskyexpo for Edrington. This means taking care of Highland Park (among many other great whiskies in the Edrington portfolio). The first thing I noticed when I arrived to the festival was that we had Highland Park FIRE in the stand! Now, since FIRE has not yet been launched and released here in Sweden, working at the festival was a great opportunity for me to try it before the release. And of course I grasped that opportunity, and I'm very thankful that the nice people of Edrington let me :)

FIRE will be available on the swedish state monopoly on Friday the 17th of February (1331 bottles, and you can view it here). 

Just as ICE is a very special expression of Highland Park (read my post on ICE here), so is FIRE. What is special about it? Well you see, FIRE has been fully matured in refill Port wine seasoned casks and Highland Park has to my knowledge never released a whisky matured in casks that previously held port wine. Adding to that, during the festival I spoke to Martin Markvardsen about the maturation process of FIRE, and if I understood Martin correctly (and if I remember correctly), the whisky has first spent 13 years in port pipes and was then transferred to port hogsheads for a final 2 years of maturation. 

For info on the concept and idea behind HP FIRE, please do check out this great video, where Martin shares the story of FIRE. Ok! Let's see what we have here! 

Nose:

When opening the bottle and nosing, the first thing that comes to mind is actually something a bit ”burnt”, sort of. Maybe something like burnt dark raisins intermingling with peat. Pouring a dram into the glass and nosing from a distant (ten centimeters or so) I first get a very slight and soft touch of oranges, not really orange juice, rather orange peel (you know the way your fingers smell when you’ve peeled an orange?). There’s even some light milk chocolate with a scent of oranges. Also there is light liquid honey, a honey that is quite summer-y and flower-y, very nice and soft… But wait, there are more fruits in there, overripe yellow kiwi and something reminding me of… is it peach candy or is it mango? Anyways, moving closer so that I have my nose in the glass I first get a whiff of medium strong alcohol, surrounding that is that slightly ”burnt” note again, but this time something like burnt sugar rather than burnt dark raisins. Nosing even deeper into the glass, interestingly enough I do pick up sweet liquorice candy! At the same time, there is also something salt-y going on here. So, even though the nose all in all is complex it’s also very ”calm” if you know what I mean? The only thing on the nose that pops out from the general fruity-ness, honey stuff and burnt raisins and the burnt sugar, is that peedie bit of medium strong alcohol, meaning, it smells just a bit ”strong” although it is only 45,2% ABV. Okey, moving on to the taste!

Martin to the left, SamuelWhisky to the right

Taste:

Wow! First, it starts off on light liquid honey, but then, Boom! Everything goes very salt-y! Sea salt in fact, also of course a fist full of heather-honey-peat, and that’s with an emphasis on peat. Now, this first part of the taste is initial and quite fast, say 2-3 seconds. After that, when swallowing, it moves very quickly into bicycle inner-tube, some kind of vegetal and/or herbal feeling intermingling with rubber/”plastic” and metallic notes, in turn intermingling with peat. In the early aftertaste, the bicycle inner-tube thingy and the vegetal/herbal stuff, moves on (within a time period of 5 seconds or so) into a mix of heavy almond paste, and even more vegetal/herbal stuff… In the late aftertaste a sort of distant creamy-ness together with ashy peat becomes more and more apparent, finally becoming the center of attention together with someting like the kind of ”mould” that is on brie cheese. In terms of texture the aftertaste can be described as being lightly dry (not heavy dry, not medium dry, but lightly dry). From swallowing, the length of the dram is about one minute long but it starts to fade  softly after thirty seconds or so. 

To sum up:

So, what’s the most interesting and good thing about this dram? 

1). For me, something that makes a dram interesting and intriguing is the quality/characteristic that the nose is basically completely different from the taste, meaning for instance that none of the fruity stuff on the nose is there on the taste. 

2). Both the nose and the taste is very complex, and complex in different ways. 

3). The move by HP to mature in a type of casks and seasoning it has never before done is absoutely brilliant which makes both the nose and most of all the taste very hard to anticipate.

How is the concept of ”FIRE” visible or obvious on the nose and the taste?

On the nose we have the peedie bit of medium strong alcohol but most of all the burnt raisins and the burnt sugar. On the taste everyhing signals ”FIRE”, apart from the honey and the creamy-ness as well as the brie type ”mould”.

Could there have been even more ”FIRE”?

Yes, but I think that it would have to entail first of all a higher strength and second of all the use of first fill port casks. 

Is this a good whisky? Yes, definitely. Why? Well first of all, the fruity stuff on the nose is absolutely beautiful! And second, you will never have tasted a HP such as this one, and you will very seldom come upon a nose and taste so different from each other than it is in this dram

pic borrowed from/belongs to systembolaget.se

Please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my twitter-page by clicking here, and my instagram by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro[at]gmail.com 

pic borrowed from/belongs to abbeywhisky.com