Springbank 28 Years Old Chieftain's Cask:1891 50.5% 1975

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (85)

Colour: gold. Nose: much more spirity, and it’s not just the alcohol, and starting more on mineral, stony notes mixed with lemon skin. A rather unusual austerity here. Something slightly smoky… It does sort of take off after a while, getting rather farmy but also hugely herbal. Hints of asparagus, apple skins… We do have a little fruit then (hints of passion fruits and oranges) but the whole seems to lack a little ‘extroversion’. Maybe a little water will work, let’s see… Well, no, that doesn’t really work. Maybe a little more citrus fruits but that’s all. Strange… Mouth (neat): it’s much more like it now, with a general profile that’s quite close to the Celtic Cross’. Quite some fruit (bitter oranges, green bananas, kumquats)… More and more bananas… Oh yes, it’s the revolution. It does get almost extravagant (on all sorts of fresh fruits and nuts) and also quite spicy, with an added layer of complexity brought by lots of herbal/phenolic notes (chlorophyll, mint, eucalyptus sweets) and again lots of wax. The finish is long, enveloping, waxy and citrusy… Whew! In short, a very, very nice palate but the nose was strangely silent.