Springbank 12yo Cask Strength vs. Longrow Red 13yo – 2020 editions!

Friends! Recently I was contacted by swedish importer/distributor Symposion asking if I was interested in reviewing some of their upcoming whiskies. There was a bunch of whiskies on offer but as I have previously done I chose to (only) sign up for some samples from Springbank Distillery. 

The samples I chose are the latest editions of Springbank 12 yo Cask Strength and Longrow Red (both bottled 2020). The reason for choosing them was that I actually did a versus/comparison/head to head of them two years ago (click here to read that article), and I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing again :)

Here in Sweden, both the Springbank 12yo CS and the Longrow Red will be available for purchase at the state monopoly this thursday and you can view them by clicking here and here. When it comes to recipe for the two whiskies these are the details:

Provided by Symposion

Springbank 12yo CS (12-15ppm) has for the 2020 edition been matured to 65% in bourbon casks and to 35% in sherry casks. The ABV is 55,3% and Sweden receives 540 bottles (number of bottles produced in total not stated). 

Provided by Symposion

Longrow Red 13yo (50-55ppm) has initially spent 10 years on a mix of bourbon barrels and refill sherry hogsheads (ratio not stated), and has after that enjoyed 3 years of "finishing" in casks that previously matured Cabernet Sauvignon from the Chilean Mont Gras' Intrigue Estate (located in Alto Maipo). The ABV is 51,6% and Sweden receives 660 bottles out of 9000 in total. Ok folks, lets review!

Springbank nose:

Lots of sweetness going on here folks! There’s sweet peat, sweet leather (caramelized leather), and the sweetness hanging around in the air from when you’ve just squeezed some lemons, and hey, there’s even some peated lemon peel in here! And of course the peatyness is also rather “heavy”, moist, and soil-y as it usually is when it comes to Springbank, but, I really must say that this is a cask strength version of Springbank that is really, really delicate and rather smooth; the ABV/high strength is hardly noticeable! The sweet fruitiness calls for almost all of the attention and below the “heavy” layer this whisky shows a softness and a creamy richness that is to die for!

Longrow nose:

Very “closed” at first nosing… first I only pick up mould and plank (newly cut wood) intermingling with almond paste in a preserve tin (meaning notes of metal), strange. Then I swirl the glass firmly and vigorously and now the dram opens up. Out comes glorious notes of old leather, redcurrants, lingonberry jam, very dry almond paste, the purple wine gums in Bassets, orange marmalade/orange zest in peated full fat whipped cream, and very un-ripe green grapes. In comparison to the previous dram the ABV/high strength is definitely noticeable in this dram and has a bite to it (so watch out). On the downside, unfortunately, the plank (newly cut wood) returns in a sort of discrete way (once you’ve picked it up you can’t not feel it). Cool stuff on the nose but do remember to give the glass a good old swirl before nosing.

Springbank taste:

Oh, the perfect strength! First comes a generous amount of saltyness and the bitterness from licking lemon peel (why did I do that?!), and then bam! Dry peat, dry smoke, heavy tannins, lots of grape fruit and a tad of red chilli. It’s all very fast indeed. In the second wave there is vanilla cigarillo graciously moving on into peated almond paste and seaweed infused with mellow lemon. The aftertaste shows fading peat, watery vanilla sauce and a whiff of mint. Wow, that was very intense and quite eventful. A very interesting and surprising flavour journey!

Longrow taste:  

It all starts off with a really vibrant phase of sour-sweetness from the red berries on the nose, and lemon pulp that has been over the top sugared, and after that it’s on to old somewhat lurky peat, peated vanilla, watery leather and milky almond paste. Unfortunately, after this it all just morphs into a sticky and bland almond paste and faint peatsmoke and that’s it folks... While the 12 yo CS is fast and surprising on the taste in a good way, this one is fast and abrupt and nothing really happens after the two main phases. It just fades away to a rather... boring peat. That's just too bad. 

Some reflections to sum up: 

Well, this time around the Springbank wins the trophy for sure; both its nose and taste is far better, in fact superior, to the nose and taste of the Longrow. Sadly and unfortunately I’d say that this years edition of Longrow Red is a bit of a failure… Looking at the price level the Springbank has all the advantage and appeal. 799kr (around €80) is indeed a catch! Sláinte!

A big thanks to the nice people at Symposion for the opportunity to review and taste these whiskies before their 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 when permission is granted by stating the source.

Borrowed from systembolaget.se

Borrowed from systembolaget.se

Longrow Single Chardonnay Cask for Sweden – 16yo 54,6% ABV!

Dear friends, followers and supporters alike! After a great and long summer break I'm glad to be back and to bring you my thoughts and impressions of a very soon to be released whisky exclusively bottled for Sweden! Last week, I was once again contacted by the people at Symposion who wondered if there was anything from their coming releases that I wanted to review for them, and of course I did! My eyes fell on a single chardonnay cask Longrow (a sort of heavily peated Springbank), and here are the details:

The whisky is 16 years old, and when it comes to the time spent in cask it started out for seven years in a 1st-fill bourbon hogshead and was then "finished" for nine (!) years in a chardonnay cask (type of oak, number of fillings, and cask size unfortunately not stated). It was bottled at 54,6% ABV (which I assume is natural cask strength). The whisky was casked in october 2001 and bottled in march 2018. The chardonnay cask gave 380 bottles out of which 378 will be released as a web-launch at the swedish state monopoly this Thursday (20th of September). You can view the product by clicking here. Ok, I am ready to nose and taste, so let's go!

Nose:

When pouring this dram a really big and fat peat emmidiately fills the room… aah, wonderful! However, when nosing gently into the glass I come to the realisation that the peatyness is very, very soft, definitely boasting with creamyness; some kind of mix of vanilla cream and fat white chocolate at room temperature almost melting away (I’m absolutely drooling just thinking about it…). As is normally the case with Longrow, in my experience, the peatyness draws very much on old leather, old shoes, earthyness/something damp, and old barnhouse. Anyways, both the bourbon cask and the chardonnay have clearly set their resepective marks on this whisky; the creamy, fat, and distinct old vanilla from the bourbon, and something very ”red” (think redcurrant jam) and dry/tannins from the wine. There is no fight between the bourbon and the wine; actually, perfect balance in my opinion. But, hey, folks, the prevailing thing on the nose is definitely the charactheristic peatyness described above. 

Taste:

Starts off incredibly salty, and remains so for 3-4 seconds. Then the ”red” takes over with a bit of a citric note to it and definitely a bit of a tanninic bite to it. This phase is however not so very long. But, do not mourne folks, because when swallowing the leather and barnhouse quickly enters with an element of old shoes to it. It all rises to the top (roof) of my mouth, is being taken over by earth/dirt and wonderful ”burnt out”-fire. And then my dear readers comes layer upon layer upon layer of wonderful creamyness… the peat and the creamyness take turns in being the soft but evident center of attention. Slowly, in the aftertaste, this is all developing into almond paste with a touch of ”red” and the citric notes, slowly everything calms down and the citric remains the longest. Very long aftertaste, medium dry… 

To sum up:

Wow! This is really a really, really great dram, an excellent pick for the swedish market that will definitely satisfy both the peat-nerds and the ”sherry-esque”-nerds. It’s really hard to decide whether the nose or the taste is better than the other, but since I like drinking whisky my verdict shall be the taste ☺ An absolutely wonderful dram that tastes so much more than 16 years old. And hey, great price for a single cask, sláinte! 

Big thanks to the people at Symposion for the opportunity to try this release, and to be able to review it before the web launch. 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 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.

Springbank 12yo Cask Strength vs. Longrow Red 11yo!

Dear friends, followers and supporters alike! A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by swedish importer/distributor Symposion asking me if I was interested in receiving samples for reviewing some of their coming whiskies. On offer was lots of whiskies and as I have done before I only signed up for samples for Springbank Distillery.

Last week a package finally arrived and so today I bring you my review and thoughts on the latest version of Springbank 12 yo Cask Strength, and likewise the latest version of Longrow Red 11yo. Here in Sweden both of these will be launched at the swedish state monopoly the day after tomorrow (the 12th of April), in a so called web-release. The products can be viewed by clicking here and here.

So, in terms of contents/recipe for the respective whiskies it goes like this: The Springbank (around 15ppm) has in this particular case been matured to 70% in sherry casks and the rest in bourbon casks (unfortunately I have received no info on kind of oak for the sherry component, nor filling in terms of 1st-fill, 2nd-fill, etc.). The ABV is 56,3%. Sweden receives 575 bottles (number of bottles produced in total is not stated).

The Longrow (around 55ppm) has in this particular case first spent nine years in bourbon casks (filling not stated), and then two years in french (225 litre) barriques that has previously held  South-african redwine from De Toren Private Cellar in Stellenbosch (filling not stated). The ABV is 55,9%. Sweden receives 612 bottles out of 9000 bottles in total.

Ok, let's do a kind of comparison and see what we have here!

Springbank nose:

Mmm, classic Springbank! Lots of ”warm” and intense, very deep, citric sherrynotes. A great portion of raw-sugar that intermingles seamlessly with the earthy but gentle (kind of leather-y) peaty-ness. Above all, interestingly enough the most prominent things on the nose are stawberry jam, apple sauce and peach candy, all three very delicate and gentle indeed.    

Longrow nose:

The nose on this one is something entirely different from the previous! The very center of the nose boasts of Werther’s creme caramel (intense deep vanilla and melted butter), together with ”old” dark honey (”stiff”/non-liquid honey). In the very upper register there is a wee tad of… Cachaça.  Slight (!!!) traces of peat. There is also a slight, slight, slight touch of very over-ripe pear, but nothing, absolutely nothing makes me think of red wine. The bourbon maturation and white oak has definitely had more impact than the red wine finish and the european oak.   

Springbank taste:

Again, warm and very dry intense sherry! Yes, very dry, but sweet sherry that both makes my mouth dry and makes it water-y. The peatyness is big and definitely warms my chest. This whisky really evolves in my mouth and goes from beautiful raw sugar-y fruity sweetness to a great leather-y dry peatyness (with a big portion of almond paste) that really takes a hold of my mouth. Very ”chewy” aftertaste and my mouth keeps altering between dry and watery. It all ends in some kind of peated overripe banana.

Longrow taste:

Actually, it very briefly starts out on matured Cachaça, everything turns very soft and vanilla- and buttery-ish together with soft milk chocolate but then, thank god, the peatyness shows itself! First as kind of salt liquorice but then as very, very dry and ashy peat (no leather). In the immidiate aftertaste we have something reminding me of elderflower soft drink, but as the aftertaste evolves the peat completely takes the overhand and gets really ashy and beautifully dry. It all ends with a sting to the tip of my tounge and big dryness on the inside of my cheeks

To sum up:

And the winner is… Springbank on the nose and Longrow on the taste! 

Big thanks to Symposion for sending me these samples and for the opportunity to review them before the release! 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 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. 

borrowed from the whisky exchange

borrowed from malt-review.com