Springbank 12 Years Old Cask Strength Batch 18 54.8% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (94)

57.8% at nearly 40 years old? Cannot be a bad omen… Colour: pale gold. Nose: what the hell is this? Smoked banana liqueur mixed with old medicines. It’s not the most complex nose but by Jove it’s stunning! The kind of focused, syrupy and juicy concentration that is to die for. Smoked grapefruit, lemon peel, olive oil, tar, passion fruit, gauze, elastoplasts, embrocations and crushed seashells drizzled with mineral oil. Over time the complexity increases and just becomes rather bamboozling. With water: amazing how it changes direction almost instantly. Gets straighter, more classically dry, mineral, chiselled and taut. Nervous coastal bite, citrus, petrol, waxes and a wealth of tropical fruits. Spellbinding stuff! Mouth: totally amazing arrival! Hot herbal liqueurs mixed with salty old mead, pine resin, some kind of peated olive oil, natural tar liqueur, cough medicine and ancient green Chartreuse! Still this kind of mad banana syrup note running throughout. The anti-maltoporn brigade had better be on speed dial! With water: gah! Utterly stunning with water. Herbal, medical, peaty, salty, resinous, divinely fruity, concentrated and hugely complex. Finish: very long. Stupendously salty, punchy, savoury and tingling with dried exotic fruits, herbal teas, smoked shellfish, tar, medicines and white pepper. Comments: This one began with brilliant but deceptive simplicity and just kind of lumbered forward in a series of surprise explosions of personality and wrong-footing vortexes of complexity. Equal parts jester and genius.

BOW (94)