Hazelburn 21 yo (46%, OB, 2022 release, 70% sherry 30% bourbon, 3600 bottles)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: to me Hazelburn these days increasingly seems to align around a 'diet Springbank' profile, but very much in the best sense of that concept. This leans loudly towards the sherry with a lot of hessian, cough medicines, wee sooty touches, Maggi, leather tobacco pouch and delicate waxy notes. Also some darker dried fruits, gamey meaty touches and bitter herbs. Excellent! Mouth: lovely arrival, rather on bitter herbal notes, salty and nutty sherry tones, more leathery and tobacco vibes and further impressions of sooty things, waxes, game meats and subtle cough medicines. Blind I would probably have just said a lovely Springbank. Finish: good length, on heather honey, candied almonds, salted liquorice, cough syrup and drier earth sherry notes in the aftertaste. Comments: rock solid, with a very 'Springbank' sherry profile but one that manages to show good balance and cleanliness. I am increasingly a fan of Hazelburn as the years tick by.  
SGP: 562 - 90 points.

Springbank 10 yo 2012/2022 (55%, OB 'Sherry Wood', 7 years in refill barrels then 3 years in Spanish oak PX hogsheads, 10800 bottles)
Much online muttering about this bottling it seems. Colour: mahogany. Nose: the sherry influence is indeed rather loud and jammy at first nosing. Plums, damsons, figs and prunes, with some tangy fruit chutney notes. Behind that a slightly more Springbanky hessian and earthy camphor note, but the sherry leads the show. With water: more on chocolate and polished leather, also a little more of these nice hessian and camphor touches. I also get a tad more wood spice now. Mouth: rather sweet and syrupy. Concentrated prune juice, raisins, sultanas, fruit cake, sweet plum wine and then wee impressions of salted milk chocolate, sweet natural tar and fir liqueur. Not too sure I'd have pegged this as a Springbank when blind. With water: gets more herbal, more medicinal and a notch more towards peppery and subtle peaty notes, which all feels comfortingly Springbank. Finish: long, getting heavier and more towards natural tar, black pepper, camphor and dried herbs. Comments: needs water to fully awaken the Springbank, which is fine I believe. A big and rather heavy dram which I suspect will improve quite a considerably with a couple of decades in glass if you can tuck one away in a dark cupboard somewhere. Feels like the sort of whisky which will only gather integration and complexity over time. For now, I find the sherry a tad sticky and dominating, but it's no great quibble, this is still very good.
SGP: 573 - 87 points.

Springbank 25 yo (46%, OB, 2022, 40% bourbon 60% sherry, 1300 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: ahhh, 90s Springbank and this age! A stunningly coastal, medicinal and mineral profile that incorporates brittle waxes, beach pebbles, herbal cough syrup and various medicinal tinctures. Also things like sandalwood, a very gentle and crisp peat smoke and lemon infused olive oil. Just a totally gorgeous profile that drips with Springbank distillery character. Love this nose. Mouth: excellent arrival, with a lovely oily texture that engages the full palate. Medicines, waxes and herbal notes once again, but also drier notes of salty liquorice, mineral oil, tiger balm, tiny sooty inflections and pure old school cough syrups. The sherry comes through slightly more clearly here with some leather, salty vibes, but overall the balance is struck beautifully and places the distillate DNA very centrally. Finish: long, mineral and herbal, a lot of soft medicinal and waxy vibes and trailing, chewy peat smoke in the aftertaste. Comments: very singular and totally brilliant, soulful Springbank!
SGP: 463 - 92 points.

Springbank 30 yo (46%, OB, 2022, 85% bourbon, 15% sherry, 1400 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: more subtle than the 25, and perhaps slightly funkier, on sheep wool oils, slightly sweaty notes, camphor, mead, heather ales and bouillon. Increasingly becoming very waxy and showing wee notes of putty and eucalyptus - very good complexity so far. Also a slightly sharp, and even almost lactic note of peat smoke. Mouth: excellent arrival, more focussed around salted and crystallised honeys, these same very big fat waxy tones and even some lovely coastal notes. Dried herbs and impressions of salted butter, anchovy paste and drying peaty notes. Finish: good length, very herbal, heathery, on some nicely old school bitter ales, bitter citrus rinds and many more of these lovely waxy qualities. Comments: lovely mature, modern Springbank. It's just that I think it had a bit of a hill to climb after that brilliant 25yo. Perhaps this is another example of the improvement from early 90s to mid-late 90s? Anyway, this is still hugely pleasurable, love that fat waxy quality.
SGP: 462 - 90 points.

Springbank 36 yo 1969/2005 (57.3%, Chieftain's, cask #793, refill fino sherry, 540 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: hyper fresh and grassy with these thick layers of waxes and in particular waxy citrus rinds. This very particular and almost shimmering and pin-sharp fruitiness that takes in green and orchard fruits, along with big impressions of banana liqueur and some overripe exotic and funky touches. Feels like a whisky that had some kind of magical fermentation behind it. Astonishing freshness and vitality at this age. With water: a little more towards medicines and hints of eucalyptus, mint tea, aniseed and crystallised fruits of all varieties. Mouth: exquisite mouthfeel and textural power. Hugely waxy, oily, full of mineral qualities, sharp and rugged coastal / salty aspects and then more of these wonderful fruit salad, gloopy and syrupy impressions. With water: everything just goes up several notches now. That fatness and textural might remain, but the complexity shoots up with all these myriad fizzing and popping ideas of medicines, herbal liqueurs, coastal notes, waxes, minerals and fruits. I'll say it again, just astonishing and wonderful freshness and power. Finish: superbly long, oily, medicinal and almost becoming mentholated and with feelings of aged mead and salted honey. Cough syrup in the aftertaste! Comments: these batches from Chieftains seem to have their own character about them that stands quite apart from many other 60s Springbanks. Masterpieces of power, freshness and what poetic beauty can occur when distillate like this is given sufficient decades in gentle wood. I'll stick with 93 but it's within a Midgie's hobble of 94.
SGP: 652 - 93 points.

Longrow 1973/1990 (46%, Moon Import, The Birds, hogshead, cask #1731, 600 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: immediately stunning with this beautifully natural, organic and elegantly drying peat profile. A style which just does not exist outside very old Ardbegs, Laphroaigs, Highland Parks, and of course these 70s Longrows. Crystalline, slightly salty, deeply rooty, herbal and ever so slightly sweet peat smoke that incorporates ancient old medicines, liqueurs, salted honeys and natural tar extracts. A feeling of immense complexity and poetic beauty. Mouth: immediate and stunning one again, but also surprising in the way that it dovetails slightly more towards some older style Laphroaig by involving quite vivid and plush green fruits and wee tropical fruit tea notes. Immensely complicated with wee notes of medicinal roots and herbs, fruit syrups, oily and fat phenolics, aged tar liqueurs and also hessians, waxes, beach pebbles and camphor. A huge amount of information being emitted from this stunning old Longrow. A whisky you need to be in tip top shape to keep up with! Finish: outstandingly long and full of perfectly drying, peppery and organic, deep peat smoke! Tars, smoked teas and oils, a feeling of some ancient dry Riesling and also more industrial aspects like tool boxes and hessian cloth. Comments: some kind of tone-poem to the ethereal beauty of peat as an ingredient in malt whisky. Seriously, the greatest whiskies ever bottled all not only contain, but need peat as an agent of their beauty. This is just sublime whisky!
SGP: 466 - 94 points.