Longrow 21 Year (2020 Release)

Longrow has become one of my favorite whiskies. Actually, most single malts from the Springbank distillery are really good spirits. I have had a couple Longrows before and both were outstanding, that is why i looked for the high end one, the 21 year old. Bottled at 46%abv, burnished gold color. On the nose, this is one of the most complex whiskies i have ever had; everything was here, everything really. Beautiful grapes, grapefruit, apples. There is a ghostly minty peat surrounding everything. Pineapple juice. Beautifuly fresh. After 5 minutes it released a freshly cut orange, red fruits and slight coconut. Now i have lemon. All the fruits are here. I feel a caramel also present, super complex. After the first sip, a peat profile rised. Mint, herbal, toffee. After a couple more sips, there is a mixture of vanilla and pepper. The palate of this dram is so complex, that you seem to find more notes with every sip. Pepper mixed with caramel. A sulphuric, earthy peat. Powerful on the palate, pineapple, vanilla. A second sip gave me caramel, salt, gunpowder. More sips revealed oranges, dim red fruits, salt. Much more fruity. Toffee also present, mixed with pineapple. Aftertaste was more straightforward, medium long but very rewarding. Ashy finish, ginger. Sulphuric; Elegant yet peaty and powerful. Overall, this is a lovely dram, very balanced, super elegant, very complex: peaty, fruity, sweet, salty, everything is in here. Really incredible. A full bottle is not cheap, but for $280-300 you are getting your money's worth. A spectacular single malt, fully recommended. My score is 98 over 100. Slàinte Mhath.

So I'm actually drinking the 2020 which is 95% sherry and 5% bourbon. I have not seen any notes on production but I'd assume 3-4k given the age and distillery. Nose - this is actually reminding me at the moment of a white wine, perhaps a chardonnay? The funk and peat give it this slightly sour note while the malt brings us some vanilla but then the funk of the sherry casks bring back elements that are more in line with a white wine. Very unique. The finish brings back in sugar cookies and lightly toasted oak barrels. Taste - Savory and bready sweetness, transitioning to oak and sour and bitter sherry wine notes. There's artificial sweeter notes here. The finish is long and complex mostly focused on those sweet pastry notes. This is my 3rd time having this and each experience has been different though trending around a central theme. Funky and weird but not in the more intense ways of most longrows. The alcohol and body here come off heavier than an 18 but the wine casks aren't playing NEARLY the role. These are tired casks. Each taste seems to change the balance from sweet or sour to bitter, now tasting much more sour and bitter. There's a level of complexity that's been achieved here that's remarkable. Longrow is boldly going as far away from the refined Macallan sweet forward drams as possible as they start off their higher end series. All I can say it be warned, this will note be for everyone, but the sheer complexity and depth achieved at 46% can't be under estimated. I'm at a 3.75 about an 89 though last night I was at a 90.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Premium Whisky Tasting, 27 November 2020). 1 of 3600 bottles Nose: Rich, toffee, sweet smoke, meaty/BBQ (?), coastal/brine Palate: Dried dark fruit (prunes), herbal (coriander), nutty, light/sweet peat, musty/sulphur. There is a recognisable ‘Campbeltown funk’ that is common for anything produced by Springbank distillery. Finish: Very smooth, velvety mouthfeel. Slightly citrus/ sour, light sweet smoke. This whisky seems to come in waves. I moved from ‘I really like this!’ to ‘Ewww – sulphur, mushroom, dank’ and back again from sip to sip. It’s weird. I don’t love it, but it is wonderfully interesting! It has so many layers – some great, some less so, but it is a beautifully complex and well balanced dram. Came joint second of the six whiskies, with 17% (4) of the final vote for favourite of the night. (78% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky).