I was lucky enough to be poured a sample of this at a tasting event I attended. Not a big sample, but enough to slowly nurse and get meaningful impressions out of. This retails at an astounding 2.5k EUR, but seeing as Precious Liquors are also selling a 10yo Edradour for over 1.4k USD, not unsurprising. This was a cask pick by Stefan van Eckyen the famed writer on Japanese whisky, and is said to be first of a trilogy of Springbanks.

Distillery: Springbank

Region: Campbeltown

Price: 2.5k EUR/700ml

Cask Type: Undisclosed

ABV: 44.5%

Chill-filtered: No

Color: 0.4, jonquil/ripe corn (natural colour).

*Drank slowly in a Glencairn with 10-15 minutes in the air

Nose: Magnificent. Blackberry jam, grape hi-chews, limes, dry nutty undertone of walnut.

Palate: Sweet-tart. Medium texture. Blackberry juice, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, persimmon, grapefruit.

Finish: Coats the mouth. Walnut, grape stems, white wine, shiso.

Conclusion: Superb sweet jammy berries counterbalanced by incredibly well-developed nutty dryness. No industrial funk to be found here surprisingly. My gut feel says this is one hell of an old-style refill sherry cask. However, I wouldn't necessarily rate this above 90 because I think the dryness comes too close to puckering for comfort especially towards the finish. Now, if the dryness was set a bit further in the background, and the jamminess more prominent on the palate, perhaps with some earthier sweet notes along the lines of cinnamon to round things off, this would be an easy 95+ for me. But it does not and for that it's an 88+ with potential to be revised upwards if I had more of it to form a fuller conclusion on, though I'm not confident.

Score: 88+

H.Y.