This is the 2020 release of the venerated Springbank cask strength release, which has quite a prominent wine finish: matured for 12 years in 45% sherry cask, 25% bourbon cask, 25% Burgundy casks (!), and 5% port (!!). Very interesting. Bottled without coloring or chill-filtration at 56.1% ABV. I basically adore everything Springbank does, so let's see how this release stacks up.
Nose: Tobacco leaf, straight up, followed closely by old leather, and then smoke and ash. After some time in the glass (and this needs a bit of time to open up), I get furniture polish and orchard fruit. The tobacco seems to transmute into something like Coca-Cola, which is very surprising.
Mouthfeel: Medium-to-thick.
Palate: Wow, WOW! Red wine influence is everywhere. I get the Burgundy first, a drying red wine tannins influence, followed by a strong tobacco/orange blast, followed by the classic "dirty" Springbank funk (diesel fumes), followed distinctly by sweet port notes. It's a helluva series of flavors. Rich and complex, I know I would need more than just this sample to really capture them all.
Finish: Quite long, smoke and red fruit and wood cask influence - delicious oak. Very nice finish.
Verdict: A powerful win for Springbank, this is worth whatever it costs to get it. A rich, complex, delicious, and interesting experience with Scotch from nose to finish. The cask strength continues to be full of discovery, this time with highly successful red wine influence.
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