Springbank 17 Year Sherry Wood

Back to campbeltown where everything is sun shine, lolly pops, rainbows, and that wonderful springbank funk. This is a 70 cl bottling distilled april of 1997 and bottled January 2015. I did recently also find a few of these here in the states and I have a bottle coming my way of that as well, no clue if there was a second release as it's strange to find anything like this still on an online retailer's stock. This one however I bought off someone. Nose - There's that classic springbank note of salt and brine and that springbank peat. It's sweet and savory all over. I get burnt tire, sulfur, funk, overripe if not sour red berries, vanilla, and sugar cookies. My notes almost come off islay in nature but make no mistake the sweet springbank malt is just as strong as those funky and lightly peated notes. Sherry is really playing well here. Taste - a quick note I get into the tasting notes, but the bottle say a mix of "fresh sherry" which is springbanks wet casks and refill. Given the color one has to assume this was mostly refill, but having had a few single barrel wet casks, I think the refill plays better with springbank's malt. So instantly I get a lot of vanilla almost to the point that i'd have assumed there was some bourbon casking here. Make no mistake once the liquod gets past the front of the tongue you get all those fruity sherry notes, berries, plums, and then transitioning to some chocolate. The finish contains that chocolate lingering note with salty springbank goodness. The more I sip this the more milk chocolate, almost a salted chocolate comes out to complement the funky elements. Water isn't changing much for me. It might be bringing more of the malt out and killing a touch of that chocolaty note, but really it didn't even change the abv feel which is very nice and highly drinkable even at 52.3%. I'd say this is a bit more refined and a bit less sherry forward than the 15 year. I get less weird and odd funky notes here and a more for me enjoyable sherry element to complement the springbank funk. I also just get so much vanilla when I first taste this one and I don't recall that on the 15 and it's just not a part of the single casks I've had with fresh sherry. I just bought a bottle of this for 150 online so I'll use that as the price. Overall, I'm really glad I have a backup. I've had this open a few months now and it's been consistently great since the start. As a springbank fan I cannot find anything to complain about, it's among their better bottlings. I'm going with a 4.0. In all honesty I think many would have this to be a 5.0 if they're into sherry finished springbank. For me while more refined than the 15, this isn't reaching the levels of refinement I get and expect out of those older 21 single casks or even some of the 46% 21's.

In my four-sample Springbank tasting, I moved on from two 12-year old expressions to jump up the family tree to a significantly older single malt, this 17-year old aged in a variety of sherry and refill sherry casks, butts, etc. Once again, the aroma is instantly recognizable as Springbank. Oh, there's sherry here, but it's sherry on Springbank's terms: mild, dry, and with another wallop of that chalky minerality or medicinal flavor. Springbank is a distillery with a big personality, and it won't let you forget that it's in the room. The taste follows along the same lines, with dry sherry, a good meaty malt flavor, orange peel, and cherries. There are wisps of smoke on the palate and, you guessed it, more minerality. I wasn't able to appreciate any marked difference between this older expression and the younger, 12-year old cask strength ones, which somewhat surprised me. My experience of some single malts, like Laphroaig, is that they develop some more idiosyncratic, exotic or tropical fruit flavors over time, but there still is not a huge amount of fruitiness or sweetness in this older Springbank. It is creamier in texture, which may be the main improvement. This scotch waves goodbye with a medicinal coda combining smoke and mint.

This is your mom's sugar cookies but with an overripe fresh raspberry icingthat finishes with kick in the crotch that leaves you tasting brine, doubled over gasping for air, and already thinking about your next dram...

Sharp smell and burns when tasted. Not bad when wafted and an ok finish after a rest(there was a hint of sherry in there) but it covered up any other complexities...just being itself. And this was with water!

Sharp, big pow at the beginning, biggest I think I ever had... Spicy. Finishes quietly and quite clean. Quite an experience.

Very nice with a touch of water, quite strong and bitter otherwise. I still prefer the Springbank 15