Springbank 30 Years Old Chieftain's Choice Cask 410 57.8% 1972

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (92)

Many great Springbanks from this Chieftain’s series… Colour: orange amber. Nose: tinned fruits in syrup such as apricots, peaches, pineapple and plums. Then lychee, orange liqueur, kumquat and evolving some notes of putty, cocktail bitters, herbal extracts, mint tea and lemon cordial. Explosive but also rather precise and brilliant. Wonderfully nervous, punchy fruitiness. With water: uber fresh! Very coastal, zingy, sharp, citrus and saline with an assortment of dried exotic fruits. Mouth: crystallised fruits, mint leaf, mulchy and earthy tones, raisins and some slightly beefy, meaty notes. Lots of saline liquid seasonings and stocky broth notes. Miso, soy sauce, white pepper, some light medical notes and cough syrup. With water: pow! superbly fruity with a concentrated saline precision. Powerful, umami, earthy, lightly tannic, salty and quivering with tart acidity and fruity freshness. Finish: long, wonderfully herbal, oily, waxy, tart, lemony acidic and fizzing with coastal salinity. Comments: A big salty slap in the face! Totally commands attention with the way it veers between fruits, medicine and seashore. Wonderful and rather specific in style to the early 1970s vintages I would say.

BOW (92.70)