Springbank 30 yo 1965 ‘Lost Bottlings Series’ Master of Malt vs Springbank 30 yo parchment label
Just to show not all old bottles were great:
Springbank 30 yo 1965 ‘Lost Bottlings Series’ Master of Malt 45.6%
Quite an olfactory wave consisting of lots of tiny goings on. You get fleeting glimpses of pollen and nectar, flints, dirty muddy sand, light smoke, dried sap (ooh a lot), salty rocks, spring-cleaned warehouses, some sort of woody herb flakes like rosemary but not quite, all held together by a thick and tightly oily body. Lots of yellow overtones too, dried yellow flower and hay. However…. the palate is a disaster. Getting musty half dried flowers, stale vase water, standing rainwater with lots of earth and sand mixed in… it’s just bad.
Springbank 30 yo parchment label 46% ~ circa early 90s bottling
Amazing. I smell fruit, the deep ambrosial and tropical sort. Light smoke and a deep phenolic earthiness. Hints of bung cloth, indistinct minerals, something coastal and also streaks of a thin but firm savoury green like lovage or majoram. Magnificent Springbank. Dried out resins and a store of perfume woods. The feat is repeated on the palate with such depth and richness, both of the fruit and also the phenolics: earth and charcoal, wispy smoke, lots of little notes and it’s all there, plus an astringent and herby green foil for balance.. Great grip and composition with an oily and salty and undoubtedly martime core.
Whiskyrific RSS
- Bowmore 35 yo 1968 / 2003 Duncan Taylor #1426 vs Bowmore 40 yo 1968 / 2008 Duncan Taylor #3824 42.3%
- Monymusk ‘Sugar Estates of Jamaica’ Rhum Agricol Moon Import 46% vs Monymusk 12 yo Berry Brothers for La Maison du Whisky 55.4%
- Bowmore 21 yo 1971 43% vs Bowmore 36 yo 1972 / 2008 Prestonfield #3881 48.8% vs Bowmore 27 yo 1973 / 2000 Blackadder #3176 50.2%
- Benrinnes 20 yo 1974 / 1994 Signatory #2577 43% vs Benrinnes 19 yo 1971 / 1991 Cadenhead 55.3%
- Old Pulteney 1989 / 2015 Lightly Peated Limited Edition 46% vs Old Pulteney 15 yo 1982 Millennium Single Cask #1522 61.1%
- An Cnoc 39 yo 1975 / 2014 44.2% vs Linkwood 36 yo 1973 / 2009 The Whisky Exchange 10 Years Online 49.7%
- Glenkinchie 18 yo 1974 James MacArthur’s 40% vs Inchmurrin 31 yo 1966 / 1997 SMWS 112.1 50.2%
- Glenkinchie 19 yo 1964 Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice 40% ~ Brown label vs St. Magdalene 18 yo 1964 Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice 40% ~ Brown label
- Highland Park 1955 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ 52.8% vs Highland Park 1955 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ 54.6%
- Longmorn 1969 / 1991 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ #3716/7 61% vs Longmorn 1969 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ 61.5%
