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Fahrenheit 173 - Aged Spirits

"If it's not good enough to drink slowly, then it's not worth drinking"

The three single malts from the Springbank distillery

 30 Dec 2012  

The Springbank dis­til­lery, one of the few remaining destilleries in Campbeltown, distills three dif­fer­ent recepies of single malt: The classic Springbank (medium peated, 2.5 times dis­tilled), Longrow (heavily peated, double dis­tilled) and Hazelburn (lightly peated, triple dis­tilled). This is a review of this year's bottlings of Longrow and Hazelburn as well as the standard bottling of Springbank.

Longrow (46%, bottled 2012, no age specified):
Malty, nutty, peaty nose with notes of engine oil, orange and mint. Un­for­tu­nately also a note of rubber. A little too young; lacks bal­ance. The palate is fairly rich and sweet, malty and cereally with honey and orange marmalade. Young and quite peaty. Nicer than the nose but still not convincing. The finish has peat, iodine, cereal and oak. Dis­ap­point­ing after the peat fades. All in all young and rowdy, peaty and power­ful. Lacks bal­ance and maturity. Cheap for a Longrow but poor value. (80 p)

Hazelburn 12 y.o. (46%, bottled 2012):
Oak and brown sugar on the nose, also dried fruits (sherry wood) and a hint of peat. Rather nice. The palate is sweet with notes of honey and orange marmalade. De­velops malt, spices, oak and peat. Oaky, peppery, fairly dry finish. Notes of peat and sherry but they don't work well together. Dis­ap­point­ing after the nice bottlings from 2009 and 2010. Best with a drop of water. (85 p)

Springbank 10 y.o. (46%, bottled 2012):
Big nose with honey, malt and peat, also a note of engine oil. Youthful and a little vulgar yet nice. The palate is more mature and more bal­anced. Sweet and fairly rich with notes of orange marmalade, fruity candy and malt. Nice finish with notes of honey, malt and a little peat. All in all youthful and a bit rough yet playful and en­ter­tain­ing. (12/73) (86 p)

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