Springbank: 18 year (Scotland Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 18 Year: 46% ABV)
Visual: Deep dried apricot to gold. Mix of slow and fast streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Treacle. Honey. Figgy pudding. Sultanas. Black olives. Light salt. Water add pencil shavings, Light oil and a slight cheese funk.
Body: Smooth. Oily. Dry sherry. Fruitcake. Lightly spicy. Adding water makes very smooth. Vanilla toffee. Plums. Cherry pocked biscuits.
Finish: Mild black olives. Dry. Tannins. Spiced tea. Dry sherry. Water adds plums and cherry pocked biscuits.
Conclusion: This is a very rich, dessert like whisky. It is smooth, initially quite dry,yet it quickly shows sweeter dark fruits and builds up a gentle oiliness as you have more sips, countering that dry base and giving great contrast.
It has a lovely balance of sweet to savoury – dark fruits, lightly oily, but instead of the usual Campbeltown grassiness as the savoury side it has mild dark olive notes which work great as a darker contrast here. A similar use of contrast, just different and very well suited here.
Most people at the tasting avoided adding water here, but I found just a few drops really helped it for me. It brings out a huge sweet plumminess and light cherry pocked biscuits in a way that calls both to the advantages of the Springbank style and the barrel aging. Only a few drops are needed, but like this it is exceptional. Fruity, large, easy drinking but still with so much to explore. It is lightly spicy as well, there is so much going on here.
A few more drops of water makes it a tad more sulfur touched which is a weaker expression that before but still good. I had heard too much water can ruin this one, so with that warning and seeing signs of the excellent quality being lessened I did not add any more.
Overall had neat or with a few drops of water this is fantastic.
Background: Another whisky from the excellent Springbank tasting night at Independent Spirit– oddly I was sure I had done notes on the 18 year before, I have definitely tried it, but looking at the site it seems it has slipped through the net until now so as good time as ever to fix that. Springbank 10 is a long time favorite whisky of mine, and whisky auction flippers have made it really hard to get the rarer bottles in the series, so having this and more in the line up was a treat.
