Smögen Triple 5 yo 2011/2017 (54%, OB, cask #5-6/2011, European oak sauternes barriques, 882 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: very ‘new world’, as we used to say around 2010. That is to say: bags of smoked dark beers, spicy rye bread, pumpkin seed oil, ham terrine, yellow mustard and hints of plaster, putty and brine. The wood is clearly rather active but it feels nicely contained within the distillate, rather than dominant. Leaves behind a pleasing richness of spices and breads. With water: superbly clean and crisp smokiness now. Lots of bonfire embers, paprika, mineral salts, coal scuttles and suggestions of oily toolboxes and hessian rags. Some menthol tobacco notes in the background. Mouth: very sweet and smoky on arrival. Bacon jam, squid ink, natural tar, caraway distillate and wee touches of mint and pastis. The peat gets bigger on second sipping, rather more hefty, medicinal, herbal and oily. With water: again this lovely sharpness of smoke, tinged with many wee aspects like lemon juice, chalk, sourdough, hessian and herbal cough medicines. Finish: long, bready, herbal, sweetly smoky, gently peaty and with a rather nice smoked olive oil note in the aftertaste. Comments: what I love about Smögen is that it is genuine skilled whisky making in a very ‘interventionist’ fashion, by which I mean you can feel that every decision which has led to the character of this whisky has been deeply and deliberately considered - ‘auteur’ whisky if you will. The assertive wood works well with the syrupy style of peat here. I hope some of this triple distilled stuff has been left to age a little longer.
SGP: 667 - 87 points.

Smögen 7 yo 2011/2019 (62.4%, OB, cask #56/2011, 1st fill barrel + rum finish, 325 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: you do get the rum at first, although it manifests rather nicely as charred pineapple, fruit salad juices, olives in brine and all manner of bandages, seawater, boiler smoke and some stuff like camphor, vapour rubs and boot polish. With water: wonderful salinity, lots of anchovy paste, sardines slathered in olive oil, sheep wool, chalk, wet rocks, cider vinegar and smoked lime juice. Really superb! Mouth: extremely pure, sharp, saline and smoked in lemon juice, raw oyster water, petrol, smouldering rosemary branches,  juniper, hessian and coal smoke. Extremely charismatic, and whatever the rum is doing, it’s doing it with impeccable politeness. With water: gets farmier on one hand but also more elegantly coastal with all these wee notes of miso, dried seaweed, sandalwood and rock pools. Some slightly animalistic edges and a wee touch of sootiness. Finish: long, smoky, gamey, earthy, peaty and wonderfully rich. Comments: Superb and very different. The rum fades in and out in an extremely subtle and slightly playful fashion but is never dominant or unbalanced in its manifestations. It may be young and monstrously powerful, but it’s also wonderfully fun and deceptively complex. This is smart use of finishing.
SGP: 567 - 89 points.

Smögen 7 yo 2011/2019 (62.2%, OB, cask #57/2011, 1st fill bourbon, 327 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: fascinating to try this next to the rum finish. This is just that bit cleaner, purer and more focussed. All on fabrics, wet rocks, seawater, chalk, plaster, seaweed, embrocations, lemon juice and a rather savoury, earthy peaty character. Umami, salty, lots of liquid seasonings and bath salts. With water: some kind of uber-salty pasta water cut with petrol and olive brine. Is there such a thing as a ‘dirty highball’? Well, there should be! (And not just one made with Inchmoan.) Mouth: pin-sharp, salty, mineral, umami, coastal and citric. A young Caol Ila that’s been slapped on the arse by an old Brora. A kind of kippery smokiness evolves along with some smoked herbs and soot. With water: more meaty now with these smoky bacon notes. Sooty, smoked fabrics, paraffin, hessian and more seawater and black olives. Finish: long, fatty, greasily peaty, resinously saline, nervous, coastal, lemony, herbal and with a rather deep and unctuous smokiness in the aftertaste. Comments: I just love the purity and power on display here. Not to mention that this is raw and naked Smögen in all its glory.
SGP: 468 - 90 points.

Smögen 8 yo 2011/2019 (57.8%, OB, casks # 4 8-10/2011, first fill Sauternes barriques, 1628 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: quite a departure. This is really brimming with umami broths, soy sauce, smoky kippers covered in lemon juice, smoked paprika, toasted fennel seed and freshly baked brown bread spread with Marmite (an opinion dividing yeast extract, which I adore). Keeps on evolving with these notes of flambeed banana, kiwi, lime, exotic fruit teas and pine resin - some dried fruits as well such as apricot and sultana. Very impressive. With water: tarry, gamey, meaty, salty, lots of smoked almonds, toasted pumpkin seeds and a wee hint of petrol. Mouth: lots of smoked breads, smoked dark beers, broiled ham, cooking oils, natural tar extracts, herbal cough medicines, toothpaste, mineral oil, squid ink and Maggi. There’s a terrific meatiness and weight to the texture, while the balance between wood and distillate remains perfectly poised. With water: smoked olive oil, paprika, soot, peat embers and some crystallised and dark fruits mixed in amongst it all. Salty porridge with crispy bacon. Finish: long, leathery, sooty, smoky, peppery, briny and with lots of dried herbs, olive oil and bouillon stock. Comments: A great and very fascinating variation, good use of the Sauternes cask I would say. What’s for sure is that these are rather demanding whiskies which could probably become tiring in session level dramming situations (unless you’re Swedish, probably) but the overall impression is of their quality and sheer force of personality. In my view, Smögen is a name that makes you feel excited about the future of malt whisky.
SGP: 666 - 89 points.

Linkwood 10 yo (48.2%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co, Batch 7, 1634 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: immediately rather yeasty, sharp and sourdough-esque. Lots of clay, hot plastic, bailed hay, feta cheese, lemon barley water and baking soda. A strange concoction of different organoleptic forces. Mouth: a little more cohesive but at the same time rather plain. Fresh cereals, toast, baked pastries, a very light, creamy sweetness, buttermilk icing, sunflower oil and orange peel. Perfectly nice but utterly forgettable I’m afraid. Finish: a little short and rather full of bubblegum, artificial sweetener, apple sourz and wee hint of nutmeg. Comments: It’s a totally harmless wee Linkwood, minding its own business. It’s just that it has something of a ‘blending stock’ vibe going on.
SGP: 441 - 76 points.

Linkwood 10 yo 2008/2019 (56%, Filmnik ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button’, cask #303292, hogshead, 298 bottles)
You may recall that The curious case of Benjamin Button featured a character who aged in reverse, feel free to draw your own comparisons with the world of whisky… Colour: pale white wine. Nose: it’s the Boutique-y, only wielding a hot skewer of alcohol! Cream crackers, fresh vinyl, baking soda, white bread, sunflower seeds, cod liver oil and fabric softener. A curious but hyper fresh nose that is somehow so plain it has gone through the infinity loop and become charismatic again! With water: all on plain oatcakes, linens, chalk, lanolin and crisp dry cereals now. Mouth: quite sweet but it’s a big and emphatically malt-derived, natural sweetness. Lots of icing sugar, barley sugars, bitter lemon, limoncello in tonic water, orange vitamin tablets and fruity travel sweets. Also a light vanilla custard note too. With water: a sense of white madeira, cut green apple, some gooseberry-flecked acidity and malt loaf. Gets rather fulsome and attractive with a little water I must say. Finish: good length, nicely mouth coating, oily and balanced between creamy vanilla sweetness and these drier, more bready autolytic notes. Comments: Much to enjoy here, even if it does suffer a little from this generic plainness once again. I feel these parcels of casks are  a good example of what happens when rather homogenised distillate comes up against relatively inactive refill wood. You can have plain oak or plain distillate, but plainness in both gives you painfully plain whisky. Are you still with me? Hello out there…?
SGP: 551 - 81 points.

Imperial 23 yo 1995/2019 (45.2%, The Whisky Exchange ‘The Magic Of The Cask’, refill barrel, 125 bottles)
I’m predictably late with this one. This one was bottled for last year’s Whisky Show in London; I’m a big fan of the labels for this series which were done specially for people on 2CB and LSD. Colour: straw. Nose: waxes, pollens and honeys. Everything in its place and, unlike the wee Linkwoods we had before, this is a textbook example of that holy trinity equation of characterful distillate + good refill wood + time. These light honey notes develop elegantly towards heather, camphor, putty, lemon peel and a lightly peppery and rather fragrant waxiness. Citronella candles, honeyed oatmeal and cough medicines. Mouth: extremely easy and - dare I say it? - smooth arrival. More of these soft medical notes like gauze and embrocations with notes of slightly salty mead, sandalwood and heather honey. More camphor, white pepper, putty and some rich cereal tones. Finish: medium length and still on waxes, camphor, citrus pith, pepper and some juicy white stone fruits. Comments: Have you heard? Imperial: it’s the new closed distillery that everyone’s talking about! Hurry while stocks last!
SGP: 562 - 90 points.

Imperial 25 yo 1994/2019 (44.1%, Elixir Distillers, Single Malts Of Scotland ‘UK exclusive’, cask #5867, barrel, 185 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: very close to the 95 but with more emphasis on sandalwood, gorse flowers, heather honey, mineral oil, waxes, crushed seashells, ink and aspirin. Similarly full of pollens, pressed wildflowers, herbal teas and wee touches of spearmint and eucalyptus. It’s really not far away from some late 80s Clynelish, only with more emphasis on fabrics, putty and cereals. Mouth: drier, leaner, more peppery, still rather waxy but overall more on scattered stony minerals, cough medicines, bitter lemon and dried tarragon. Finish: medium and full of warmth, honey, sweet cereals, light waxiness and again these wee coastal and medical flourishes. Comments: I really do think these mid-90s batches of Imperial are shy but hugely impressive. They share quite a bit with the likes of Clynelish and Ben Nevis from similar vintages, which can’t be a bad thing. This one was a tad drier and narrower but still cruising at the same high quality level.
SGP: 462 - 90 points.

Bunnahabhain 14 yo ‘Warehouse 9’ (59.9%, OB hand fill 2017, 1st fill oloroso sherry, cask #1490)
These bottlings come in handy ‘neckable’ 20cl formats. Or, massively overpriced, cheapskate 20cl sizes. Depending on your cynicism levels on any given day. Colour: reddish amber. Nose: big, earthy and beefy with an abundance of prunes in Armagnac, coffee and dark fruit chutney. Things like brown sauce, mole, soy sauce, Dundee cake, gingerbread and black olives. Big, uncomplicated and powerful stuff designed to seduce sherry lovers. With water: gets more dense and medical with things like natural tar, roof pitch and then leaf mulch, walnut oil, hessian and dunnage earthiness. Mouth: beef stock, camphor, paraffin, soot, bike chain grease, almond oil, canvass and pine resin. Massively dense, dark and earthy. Also laden with tobaccos, dried mushroom powder and bitter chocolate. With water: savoury, umami, chocolatey, bitter coffee, macadamia nuts and a rather saline crispness. Finish: long, meaty, gamey, leathery, chocolatey, bitter, salty and umami. Comments: Hard not to be impressed. What’s surprising is that there are more than a few Bunna calling card flavours and aromas which have run the sherry gauntlet and come up loud and clear on the other side. Recommended if you can find such things. I’m sure they pop up at auctions courtesy of those ‘flippers’ we all love to hate.
SPG: 662 - 88 points.

Bunnahabhain 1974/1989 (57.1%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #10.7)
Why not a wee blast from the past while we’re at Bunnahabhain…? Colour: light amber. Nose: what I love about Bunnahabhain is that, when it’s on form, it manages to be wonderfully distinctive and very ‘Islay’ without the crutch of peat. This is a delicate balancing act between dried seaweeds, ripe exotic and green fruits, salted mead, heather honey and then some lovely fragrant notes like sandalwood, cured meats, smoked teas and herbal bitters. Elegance, precision and complexity. With water: becomes sweeter and more herbal, close to yellow Chartreuse with a persistent, underlying saltiness. Some orange cordial, cooking oils and salted peanuts. Mouth: extremely umami, that is to say wonderfully resinous and saline. Lots of soy sauce, cured game meats, dried seaweed, ramen broth, miso, medical embrocations, natural tar and then some sweetness from boiled lime sweets, children’s cough medicines and cherry throat sweets. There’s also a sense of crystallised fruits chopped into muesli. With water: again it’s meats, followed by umami and then dried and crystallised fruits. Extremely ‘full’ and rather oily and fatty in texture. Finish: long and still wonderfully savoury, fatty, oily, salty, lightly nutty and getting rather peppery and medical. Comments: Old style Islay on one hand, but also a rather singular and totally different aspect on ‘Islay’ that is pretty specific to Bunnahabhain I’d say. Anyway, this is rather complex and slightly ‘intellectual’ stuff, but I think it’s also extremely good. There’s also more than a few strands of DNA between this one and the OB, which I find very cool.
SGP: 662 - 90 points.

Port Charlotte 15 yo 2002/2017 (59.4%, OB private cask bottling, cask #0002, refill bourbon + fresh Haut-Brion hogshead, 267 bottles)
Colour: rose gold. Nose: this farminess that I find quite particular to the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Port Charlottes is present here, but there’s also a worrying vinous oddity about it too. Salted liquorice, seawater, sour cherry lambic, goat cheese and white balsamic. Extremely tart with a rather volatile acidity. With water: leafier, much smokier and gutsier. More mechanical, sooty, peppery and briny. Also touches of silage, which feeds back into this farmyard funk vibe. (Can we start one of those whisky industry bands and call it Farmyard Funk yet please?) Mouth: again farmy to start then the wine just becomes too pushy, cloying and a bit unbalanced. Quite sweet, sooty, lots of pure peat smoke, sweetened tar liqueur, iodine, smoked fish, cola syrup and cherryade. I find it pretty tough really I’m afraid. With water: again the peat and the wine cask make for disquieted bedfellows. Cherry soap, natural tar, green peppercorns in brine, freeze dried strawberries. Generally a bit strange and tough. Finish: long, smoked soap, tar, pepper, seawater, oysters, grapefruit juice and miso. Comments: I know that some will probably love this, but it’s not for me I’m afraid. I find that the wood and the spirit just jar too sharply. I love peat and a I love wine, but I don’t think they like each other and they tend to spoil parties when they’re both in attendance.
SGP: 667 - 77 points.

Port Charlotte 17 yo 2002/2020 (49.7%, Thompson Brothers, 217 bottles)
Colour: unsurprisingly softer and with a rather silky smokiness. Although, it’s still typically quite farmy, sooty and displaying notes of crispy bacon, tar, black olive, smoked dried herbs, salt baked white fish and kippers. Hits that sweet spot of smoky, farmy and coastal! There’s also a rather pure and lean medical streak running underneath. Mouth: smoked sea salt, brine, petrol, hessian, squid ink and lapsang souchong tea. Sardines in olive oil, rock pool water, dried seaweed and even some strangely floral notes like pot pourri and gorse flower. In fact what’s appealing is that over time more and more of these lighter notes emerge. Wee notes of sandalwood, gooseberry, green apple and dandelion. Quite unusual and probably something to do with being bottled at a reduced ABV. Finish: long, elegantly coastal, citrusy, smoky cereals, pink sea salt and a lightly herbal peat smoke. Still residually farmy as well. Comments: I do think Port Charlotte from the early 2000s is some of the best and most interesting distillate from the new ownership years of Bruichladdich. Very fun to see it coming into full maturity now. This one was superb and rather captivating.
SGP: 576 - 90 points.

Springbank 14 yo 2004 (57.7%, OB ‘Cage’, fresh sherry hogshead, 1 bottle)
I know, I know. Writing notes for these ‘cage’ bottlings is pretty pointless. But they’re often good benchmarks for contemporary Springbank. Colour: amber. Nose: a little closed at first. Lots of damp leaves, bracken, soot and earth. Leaning towards things like dark chocolate and some rather animalistic touches. The ‘Springbankiness’ is a tad shy and buried. With water: some nice notes of bitter orange, salty liquorice, Maggi and a rather punchy herbal quality. Mouth: again rather leafy, bitter and peppery. Lots of cocoa powder, soot, cured meats and some rather salty and savoury meat stock notes. One of these rather typically beefy sherry casks that Springbank seem to have no shortage of. With water: again rather drying, salty, straight and earthy. Some notes of brown bread and sooty cereals emerging now as well. That meaty tone has calmed a little. Some preserved lemons show up as well. Finish: medium and nicely saline and fresh. Comments: I can see why it was a cage bottling and not a single cask. Still good though. Ideal for passing the night in a C-town air bnb.
SGP: 473 - 85 points.

Springbank 19 yo (50.2%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company for Han-She, sherry, bottled 2019)
Han-She is a private whisky club and bar owned by a very nice but offensively youthful chap from Beijing named Bihan Yang. Colour: coppery amber. Nose: it’s a rather sooty and earthy one again, however here you have these lovely additional aromas of cedar wood, unlit cigars, menthol cigarettes and bitter marmalade. Continues with various medical linens and bandages with a good slathering of BBQ sauce. With water: once again the development is in the direction of freshly baked brown breads, dark grains, Scotch broth, light notes of iodine and salty seaweed flakes in ramen. Mouth: again this very meaty and earthy style of sherry. Lots of soot, camphor, smoky bacon, mole sauce, herbal bitters and things like rope and hessian. This impression of coal dust once again. With water: big, bitter, herbal, slightly smoky and full of things like ink, carbon paper, meats, earth, bitter coffee and sack cloth. Also getting peppery and full of smoky chilli notes. Quite impressive. Finish: long, meaty, herbal, bitter and sooty with a medial and deeply earthy aftertaste. Comments: It’s an impressive whisky no doubt. However, I can’t help but feel that these sherry casks are of a somewhat divisive character. Those with an aversion or sensitivity to the more grubby, rough and ready style of sherry will probably find this tough going. There are parts which merit 90 but technically I don’t think it’s quite there overall. Still excellent, boisterous and fun whisky though.
SGP: 473 - 88 points.

Springbank 22 yo 1995/2018 (44.3%, Svenska Eldvatten, cask #498, refill sherry hogshead, 137 bottles)
This new in from those Swedish dudes over at Eldvatten. Colour: deep gold. Nose: very rustic and charming. Lots of roasted nuts, coffee cake, dry earth, walnuts, peanuts, metal polish and some more vegetal hints of grilled asparagus and meaty notes of salty Iberico ham. Mouth: it’s a clean sherry cask. Just extremely nutty and with this rather lean, cured meat vibe. Lots of dry roast peanuts, anthracite, dried herbs, charcoal, sooty qualities and some cocoa powder. Perhaps on the more quirky side of 90s Springbank. Mutton, bouillon stock, boot polish, leather, hessian and oily rags. It lacks a little oomph, but it compensates with a lot of charisma and mechanical schmooze (what?!) Finish: medium, lightly tarry, rather herbal, still pretty sooty and with some final savoury meaty and peppery qualities. Comments: It’s hard to know what to make of these batches sometimes, they can wrong foot you quite easily. Here the sherry is clean but just a tad unusual, although the charm wins out in the end. One to sip from a hip flask after a long day operating a lathe perhaps…?
SGP: 463 - 88 points.

Springbank 26 yo 1992/2019 (47.7%, The Whisky Kingdom & Duckhammers, cask #153b, bourbon barrel, 111 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: oooh. Beautiful and very classical aroma of waxes, pollens, sandalwood, hessian and lamp oil. Also this underlying wispy peat quality all tied up with medicines, chalk and beach pebbles. This lovely triumvirate of coastal, peaty and waxy that the best modern Springbanks possess. Also various dried and crystallised fruits as well. Given time it kind of breaks down further into citronella candles, crushed seashells, ink and some rather scattered minerals. Gorgeous nose! Mouth: totally superb arrival all on bath salts, beach foam, chalk, canvass, waxes, honey, salty mead, putty, dried mint and herbal cough medicines. Mid-era Springbank that displays some unusually floral and fruity touches. Finish: good length. All on hessian, dried seaweed, honey, candied exotic fruits, waxes, sheep wool and hints of wintergreen and old Chartreuse. Comments: I just love this style. The purity, richness and idiosyncrasy of the flavours is terrific. Although, from some angles its typically early 1990s Springbank, while in others it appears a tad more divergent.
SGP: 562 - 91 points.

Springbank 12 yo ‘100 Proof’ (57%, OB, b1996 for UK, rotation ’96/340’)
One of a legendary series of bottlings produced in the mid-1990s for the UK and the USA. Stories abound about these being ‘topped up’ with older stocks, or reduced to bottling strength with older under proof casks. What’s certain is that these batches do contain whisky older than 12 and that they carry a hefty reputation for a reason. Colour: gold. Nose: there is certainly something ‘old Springbank’ about this. The richness and fruitiness of the sherry is immediately striking. Lots of toasted walnuts, dried flowers, Dundee cake, hessian, figs, old Cognac, lightly tarry notes and then more mineral notes of oily rag, wet rock, linens, clay and putty. Things like ink, dried tarragon, game meats and aged pu ehr tea. It’s just another level of depth, taut potency and complexity altogether. With water: gets lighter, leafier, more black tea, tobaccos, menthol, balsamic, walnut oil and pine resin. Mouth: stunningly gamey, meaty, earthy and fruity. Lots of dark stewed fruits, sultanas, raisins, figs and various fruit preserves and jams. Meat broths, waxes, bouillon, umami and black olive paste. There’s also the warmth of English mustard powder and black pepper - punchy and extremely assertive. You could almost add some very grassy virgin olive oil too. With water: pow! Goes pretty ballistic on the complexity side. Immense, controlled and yet diverse with all these different strands of meaty, fruity, waxy, mineral, nutty and even rather coastal now too. Dash it all! Call the anti-maltoporn brigade! Finish: super long, nervously sherried, crystallised fruits, resinous, a kind of fluttering salinity, earthy, peppery, spicy paprika, embrocations and dried mint. Comments: In parts a beast and in parts a gentleman. What’s for sure though is that this is dazzling and compelling whisky that holds your attention on a knife-edge. I think the 50% versions are a notch more stellar, but we are flying undeniably above cloud level here.
SGP: 664 - 94 points.

Springbank 34 yo 1975/2010 (40.5%, OB ‘private cask’, cask #99/165-1)
How many of these private cask label bottlings have there been now? Not sure anyone truly knows, quality can be all over the place in my experience. Colour: orangey gold. Nose: oily rags, highly polished minerals, soot, wee rocks, fabric, pure mineral oil, hessian. It’s not unlike some mid-1990s Springbank but rather lighter and more polished by age. I also get rather a lot of things like tangerine liqueurs, herbal cough medicines, wintergreen, menthol and wee touches of fennel and caraway. Lovely nose, if a tad fragile. Mouth: orange vitamin tablets in soda water and rather a lot of herbs and sooty earthy notes. More minerals, struck flints and salty savoury broths. Again fragile but nicely complex and elegant. Springbank, but on the subtle side. Gets a tad teaish and weak towards the end, a little cardboard. Probably bottled about 4 years too late. Finish: a bit short, on cough medicines, wool, herbs and some breads. Comments: Some parts were extremely attractive but overall it’s over the hill I would say. Still, you get a clear picture of how it would have been a few years earlier which is nice, depending on how masochistic you’re feeling.
SGP: 551 - 85 points.

Springbank 30 yo 1972/2002 (57.8%, Chieftain’s Choice, cask #410, sherry, 576 bottles)
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.
SGP: 753 - 92 points.

Springbank 12 yo (80 proof, OB, ceramic jug, UK, bottled late 1970s)
Colour: straw (I’ve seen darker vattings of this at the same ABV and from roughly the same era so there must be a few variants out there) Nose: what’s funny is how close we are to the 1992. We’re still in this maelstrom of clays, waxes, putty, chalk, beach pebbles, ink and soft peat. Only here there’s a more focused and concentrated layer of exotic fruits draped over everything. Things like melon, papaya, mango and kumquat. Mouth: starts surprisingly soft but then builds beautifully. Syrupy, slightly greasy, oily and fat in texture. Salty, waxy, some citrus peels, chalk and again this rather punchy medical quality. Brilliant distillate! Finish: long, peppery, lemony, medical, chalky, waxy and nicely mineral. Comments: These ceramics can be a bit hit or miss due to storage and the mysteries of OBE, but when they’re good they’re seriously great.
SGP: 653 - 92 points.

Springbank 12 yo (80 proof, OB, UK, bottled late 1970s)
This one will be interesting as it should be very similar liquid bottled very close in time to the ceramic. Colour: pale straw. Nose: drier, fatter, greasier and more towards grassy olive oil, punchy minerals, camphor, sheep wool and a more assertive coastal quality. Lots of petrol, limestone, lemon peel and a drier, more brittle waxiness. This kind of peppery hessian quality. You really feel like this is edging backwards into a different era of production now. Things like ink, carbon paper, soot and seawater. Mouth: totally superb power and control. Wonderfully oily, saline, fat and peppery. Lighter fluid mixed with seawater, black olives and preserved lemons. Again this rather petrolic and mineral quality with hessian and some soft but precise peatiness. Brilliant whisky. Finish: long, salty, lemony and full of canvass, sandalwood ashes, newspaper ink, dried herbs and bandages. Comments: Another world of flavour from a lost era of production in Scotch malt whisky. Even for Springbank this feels like something out of a time warp. But it remains totally stunning and with a gripping freshness, even after these years in bottle.
SGP: 463 - 93 points.

Springbank 39 yo 1969/2008 (57.8%, Chieftain’s, cask #794, butt, 150 bottles)
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.
SGP: 663 - 94 points.

Springbank 21yo 1967/1989 (46%, Signatory Vintage, cask #3139, sherry, 600 bottles)
This one was also bottled in the Dun Eideann livery as well. Colour: deep amber. Nose: just stupendous. This kind of super resinous, deep, earthy, concentrated and profoundly complex old school sherry that sits in perfect harmony with the Springbank 60s character. The kind of nose you could sit all afternoon picking out wee aromas from. I’ll simply say: maraschino cherry, black coffee, herbal bitters, natural tar extract, mint julep and toasted fennel seeds. Sublime concentration, depth and balance. Mouth: what’s so striking initially is that it feels bigger and more powerful than 46%. You get this immediate impression of depth, concentration, power and breadth of flavour very similar to that of the nose. There’s a consistency of brilliance from nose to palate that is an indicator of greatness in whisky I think. Chocolate, coffee, tar, dried miner, petrichor and this sublimely herbal, dry turfy old school peat. Also black olives, bitter lemon and caraway. Again, you could go on and on… finish: long, mushroomy, earthy, sooty, peppery, meaty and spicy. Sinew in a velvet glove. Comments: We’re teetering on the edge of 94 here. Everyone should endeavour to try this kind of quality of sherry cask at least once. Even just a sip. It alters your perspective on contemporary sherried whiskies forever.
SGP: 672 - 93 points.

Springbank 1965/1987 (58.7%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #27.6, sherry)
Better just put on my heavy duty tasting trousers… Colour: rosy amber. Nose: there are some of these 1960s mega-Springbanks that are immediate and easy; there’s also these ones. This is rather taut and un-yielding at first nosing. The aromas come very slowly and teasingly: bitter chocolate, prune eau de vie, hessian, cloves, anthracite. Needs time and patience. Things start to unfold after a couple of minutes though. Dried mushrooms, black olives, natural tar, black cherries… things are very quickly getting out of control. Hessian, some kind of chocolatey peat and all manner of herbal bitters, coffee… probably best just call the anti-maltoporn brigade. With water: difficult not to make embarrassing noises now. Rich, decadent and evolving in a profoundly tertiary, umami and complex way. Mouth: as my good friend and Old & Rare collaborator Mr McMillan is fond of saying “shit the bed!” Smoked dark chocolate sauce - if such a thing exists. Almost like liquid leather in texture. Autumnal, meaty, earthy, dense, sinewed and riddled with savoury, salty, medical and earthy complexities. With water: holy moly! Everything as it was but just up several levels in terms of breadth, complexity and immensity. Best stop before we start getting silly. Finish: just endless. Cast your toothbrush into the sea! You won’t be needing it anymore… Comments: I had it at 94 but water just propels it to another level entirely. You need to be careful tasting these old SMWS Springbanks, they can send you to a place of gibbering ridiculousness.
SGP: 463 - 95 points.

Springbank 30 yo (43%, OB for Japan, 1980s)
Needless to say, a super rare old bottle. Colour: deep gold. Nose: really another world. A whole beehive full of honey, waxes, pollens, dried wildflowers, herbal teas and various precious hardwoods. Rather like if you were miniaturised and allowed to clamber around inside an old acoustic guitar - I think. There’s this kind of globulous, syrupy fruitiness; coal smoke; cedar and sandalwood; and eventually a little nervous coastal freshness. Pretty hypnotic and beautiful old school malt whisky. Mouth: tensely salty but with this rather huge and fatty waxiness. Almost waxy in texture with gooey honey, old hessian, beeswax, dried mint, eucalyptus balms and some ancient cough medicines. The savoury and saltiness are thrilling, while there’s also a myriad of dried exotic fruits at play as well. Like chewing on dried mango when along comes black olives and dried seaweed. Finish: beautifully long but never meandering. Stays focused and on point. Salinity, dried herbs, olive oil, camphor, fragrant peat smoke and more waxiness again. Comments: We’re flying about as high as we expected with this one. Not a surprise but a profoundly pleasurable dram. An old school Campbeltown hug in a glass!
SGP: 662 - 93 points.

Springbank 8 yo (43%, OB, Sutti import, circa 1970)
Colour: white wine. Nose: It’s this style that recalls the late 70s UK 12yo from the glass bottle. All purity, minerals, waxes, putty, metal polish and chalky medicines. Lime, cough syrups, spearmint and sandalwood. There’s also these wee coastal and lemony qualities that nod into the future towards more contemporary Springbank styles. Considering this was probably distilled in the early 1960s I would say that’s a pretty impressive and resilient link of DNA. There a funny duality of fragility and fragrance alongside crispness and power about the nose. Compelling and very beautiful. Mouth: pow! Hugely impressive arrival. You would think it was above 46%. Mineralic, vegetal, copper, oily rags, tool boxes, hessian and various cooking oils. Notes of gorse, putty, anthracite and pine resin. Unusual and beautifully old school. Finish: surprisingly long, warming, peppery, slightly bitter and herbal with these notes of marjoram and thyme. Comments: Fresh sherry or tired refill; natural strength or 43%; old or young: these old Springbanks can just seem indomitable. But this is what happens when you focus on making incredible distillate - you strip away the necessity for active wood to cover a dearth of personality.
SGP: 462 - 92 points.

Dunaverty 12 yo Pure Malt (43%, Eaglesome Ltd, circa 1970) 
Eaglesome was the name of the shop in Campbeltown owned by Hedley Wright which would later become Cadenhead. This series also featured an 8yo and is well known to shelter Springbank. Colour: pale gold. Nose: metal polish, natural tar, soot, embrocations, crushed seashells, ink. As ever: it’s a nose that just screams ‘Springbank’. Like a lot of these really old bottlings where the distillate is starting to get back towards the late 1950s, the character is more about minerals, petrol, mechanical oils, drier and sharper coastal attributes and a wonderful core of purity. Mouth: like the 8yo, this is more about damp grains, soot, hessian, ink, dried herbs, earthy vegetal tones and medical embrocations. These chalky, flinty and beach pebble notes come through as well. Nothing tastes like this today. Finish: good length, rather a lot of oily sheep wool, camphor, medical embrocations, chalk, iodine and some grippy cereal notes. Comments: Perhaps not as stellar as some other older Springbanks, but we’re still flying high and this is wonderful wee historical benchmark of distillery character from this era.
SGP: 452 - 91 points.