Something Old Something New (but a bit old as well)

Springbank 10 = Old Skool!

Springbank 10yo. OB. 46%. Circa 2009/10.

Colour: Pale gold with a greenish tinge.

Nose: A sort of coastal/farmy indecision at first, quite flinty with wet seashore pebbles. Old engine oil but also a little metallic. Seems slightly polarized in some ways but very attractive. Quite expressive, good fruit character, after a while it starts to display some sawdust a fresh malt aromas. With water it becomes more flowery and dusty with an austere white fruitiness.

Palate: Good attack, quite pungent and mouth-coating, with a coaly, peaty sort of lump in the middle of the palate. Granite, heather, sea-breezes, wax and some ‘modern’ sweet woodiness just to remind us what decade we’re in. Water seems to magnify the oiliness in quite an impressive way and gives up some quite sharp spiciness, becomes a little too sharp after a while.

Finish: Impressive length. Lingering maritime, malty combo.

Comments: Probably the only distillery in Scotland that still makes an ‘old style’ whisky. Some good invisible wood technology going on leaves lots of distillery character to play with.  Probably one of the best standard bottlings out there.

Glenlochy 13yo for Sestante. Good luck finding a bottle of this but we have another great Glenlochy here.

Glenlochy 13yo. Sestante Import. 67.3%. Dist 74, bottled 87.

Colour: Aussie Chardonnay (big generalization I know)

Nose: Totally austere and unsexy! Flints, big minerality, white flowers, citrus, freshly cut grass, stubborn waxiness, difficult, difficult, difficult. Really quite beautiful but very demanding but you’d never guess it was over 67%, I’d love to have tried this when it was just bottled before it had twenty years in glass. With water the fruitiness becomes softer and more luscious, a little more playful perhaps, still very old school though.

Palate: The alcohol is more obvious here but its still remarkably expressive. Bitter orange peel, dusty old malt barns and a salty preserved lemon note, probably needs water. With water its still so austere and difficult but the fruit and flinty balance is really mesmerizing. There is even some smokiness starting to curl about the palate now, very dry, maybe a little bit of cardboard creeping in.

Finish: Quite bitter and drying, almost like its been hopped. But it goes on for a long fade, the stubbornness remains…

Comments: Not everyone’s cup of tea but I love it. One of the most challenging styles of whisky you will find: Old style, un-tampered with highland malts. Not a trace of vanilla anywhere, difficult and challenging and probably an interesting snapshot into whisky filled into cask at its undiluted strength, a rare thing these days. No doubt 20 years in bottle helped round this one out a little.

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