Review #16 - Springbank 12 Year Cask Strength Batch 21
Cask Strength Favorites Mini-Series: Part 3 of 3
The final review in this mini-series, and we're rounding it all off with Springbank 12 Year CS, specifically Batch 21 which was bottled in 2020. We were lucky enough to stumble upon this when we weren't even looking for it, and honestly, we didn't know how special/sought after it was. If we could only go back a couple of years and buy everything on the shelf (just kidding, we're not hoarding over here, but we probably would have gotten a second bottle).
It's unfortunate that Springbank of any kind is now borderline impossible to find in many markets, and while we don't see it often, we're still 'lucky' enough to be able to buy a bottle or two from this distillery each year. They rarely disappoint, but the cask strength bottlings specifically get quite a bit of hype, and it's time to find out if it's for real. How does this stack up against our other cask strength favorites, Wild Turkey Rare Breed and Redbreast 12 CS?
Springbank 12 Year Cask Strength Batch 21
Scotland/Campbeltown - Single Malt
Price Paid: USD 105 (2021)
Current Locally Available Price: USD 330 (currently unavailable in stores near us, using online secondary pricing) (2023)
Age Statement: 12 Years
Strength: 56.1% ABV
Cask Makeup: Bourbon, Sherry, Port, and Burgundy casks
Details: Non chill filtered and no color added
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 4 times over 12 months; bottles at 100%, 80%, 70%, and 60% fill level at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Where to start? Very rich, unusual, oily and dense, and has that distinct Campbeltown funk of musk and dirty industrial machinery. Plenty of musty red wine influence, we have the sherry, the semi-dried dark fruits of raisin and overripe strawberry and plum and prune; there's a bit of dark chocolate too, later. This is really turning into a charcuterie board as it opens up: yeasty fresh bread, dried salami, almost a bit of savory cheese. Tiny olive note, some heather or dried hay, and sweet potato french fries. We're finding that both the peat and oak char influences are quite mild, but this is decently sweet overall, and there is now just a touch of leather and blackberry jam. Finishes with a bit of bitter orange fruit, and then a sugar that's almost sickly sweet.
Palate: Charcuterie board theme continues on the palate: funky red wine, warm, red fruit jams, mild barbecue char with sauce on a fire, bready pretzels. Fruits all over the place, we're getting orange citrus oil, stewed strawberry, sweet raspberry, sweet green apples, even blackberries. A little bit of that sherry sulfur note comes along, but it's balanced by vanilla, baking spice, some milk chocolate and a blast of port wine. Other than the charcuterie notes, it's classic Springbank: rich, industrial grunge and quite funky, earthy at times, and mild peat smoke like a fire in the hearth on a cold autumn day. Very oily, the mouthfeel is medium-thick, and there's a mossy cellar taste, damp hay and leather accentuating it. Finishes with some brown sugar butter and a bit of pepper spice.
Finish: Medium-long finish, the sherry and tingling oak tannins stick around the gums for a while. Quite oily still, musky, and sometimes a bit sulfuric (but we don't mind); plenty of fruit still to go around, with sharp plums, orange, a touch of exotic white stone fruit. There is a little bit of spice, maybe from the wood - red pepper flakes, or pepper? But then it's sweet once more, with fresh baked rolls, creme brulee, a touch of underripe strawberry. This is all underscored by the usual mild peat, the industrial musk.
Final Note: Seriously, where can we find another bottle? This is fantastic. In all honestly, due to the way we average our ratings, this score is actually being held down slightly by the first rating, which was a neck pour that was a bit closed up. Once it did open up, wow, it's hard to even know where to start. A bit of a chameleon - it can change complexion depending on the day and the tasting setting, but no matter which flavors show up, they're exceedingly nice and complex and layered. Can't recommend this enough at MSRP, and while we're not going to pay the secondary online pricing to get another one of these, there is a little part of us that wants to.
Our Average Rating: 8.6 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.04
