Longrow 18yo & 21yo
2022 Official Bottlings | 46% ABV
Common Sense
Common sense tells us that not every whisky released by a distillery can be outstanding every time, no matter how good the distillery is. And so it is with Springbank.
This isn’t meant with any malice, nor any sense of sensationalism; to be clear, I’m not trying to assert that Springbank are anything other than a brilliant distillery. Their commitment to making whiskies with personality, individuality and an unwavering process dedicated to flavour over efficiency is nothing but commendable.
That being said, nobody is perfect, and not every bottling can hit a home run every time. This should be highlighted, I think, particularly because of the unreasonable pressure now mounted upon it by the vying masses trying to source the whisky for all manner of reasons, each sitting on some sliding scale of malicious intent.
This is, I think, a wonderful thing; it’s part of the larger transient experience that is life. There can be no peaks without troughs, no light without dark. Batch variation, especially in such a small, quality-over-consistency setting is unavoidable, and the way that batch variation interacts with different people’s palates and expectations is at least as complex. This was made abundantly clear during the Dramface team’s collaborative reviews for the Springbank 15.
I was both a little chuffed and, simultaneously, rather saddened by the fact that I had the lowest score for said bottling. Chuffed in that I’m glad to have offered a somewhat balancing dimension to the review, as well as self-demonstrating some degree of impartiality in the face of a fairly overwhelming difference of opinion. It was a more concerted effort to demonstrate myself as anti-contrarian in fact.
Rather saddened in that I obviously don’t taste the brilliant, challenging and complex whisky that some of my peers do, especially in wanting to enjoy as many whiskies as possible; to have a catholic palate in the truest sense of the word. However, a fairly acute sulfur intolerance precludes certain bottlings from this, my preferences being (not for lack of trying) generally out of conscious control, and in all likelihood having been set by an inextricable biology.
With all that said I come back to my usual stance on the topic; whisky enjoyment is wholly subjective. Subject to personal taste, history, physiology, environment and many other subtleties. Whisky, being what’s physically in the glass, is wholly objective. Organoleptics are an important analytic tool, but there’s a reason the big distilleries pay for GC/MS and various other machines which go ping. The same whisky in front of a hundred different noses will probably produce a hundred different neural maps. As such, I will always do my best to lend some degree of objectivity to these reviews, but ultimately we’re all just haunted sacks of meat driving a fleshy skeleton suit; don’t take this too seriously.
As a disclaimer, both of these bottles have been purchased on behalf of my whisky club, through which the expense will be distributed. I can’t afford these as an individual, and that’s reflected by both of these bottles losing a point for price in scoring. Ultimately, being able to share some of these increasingly unicorn-esque bottles with fellow appreciators is part of what makes whisky, and its community, so fun.
Review 1/2
Longrow 18yo, Batch 07/07/2022, 46% ABV
AUD$600 minimum retail (AUD$300 paid)
According to Whiskybase, this bottling is entirely from ex-sherry casks, which puts it on thin ice to begin with. My hopes remain high given the calibre of the Longrow distillate, and in particular the stellar Longrow 21 single cask I reviewed not too long ago. Still, this isn’t a single cask bottling, and considering the proportion of sherry casks I seem to take issue with these days, the statistics aren’t in favour of my sulfometer. What’s more, whenever there’s blending involved, there must be a blender; a tautology if ever I’ve heard one. What a blender wants to achieve given a certain parcel of stocks vs. what a consumer wants depends on the alignment of the blender and consumer’s palates. Well, we shall see.
Nose
Big sherry- there is a bit of sulfur, but it’s at least partially the distillate and thus not beyond the realms of enjoyment. With some air it turns toward broths and stocks, some leaf mulch, wood polish, old toolbox, hints of leather, roasted nuts, various berry jams plus dried and stewed stone fruits. With a bit of air the meatiness evolves and takes on a BBQ glazed pork tone, then wafts of outright peat smoke.
Palate
Yep, the sherry is walking tall and takes the lead. Bursts through with more dried fruits and jams, leather, roast nuts, cacao, toffee, a bit more sulfur (slight struck match) and some baking spices with coconut. The spirit components gather momentum via mango and guava undercut with lemon sherbet, and the peat lifts a bit through the mid palate to finish with some lit cigar, dense hydrocarbons and more smoked meats.
The Dregs
The sherry influence here is possibly heavier than the recently reviewed Longrow 21 single cask! That said, its influence is noticeably cleaner than all of the Springbank 15 batches I’ve sampled, though there is still a touch more sulfur than I prefer- perhaps half a point’s worth.
For those that want a sherry bomb with some peat through the lens of Campbeltown, this would be a top contender. It’s not precisely my style, given that I prefer a bourbon influence in most cases, but one must respect the quality at hand. The value proposition here is better than that single cask, but it’s still way too bloody expensive, and doesn’t reach the same heights of scintillation as that 21yo.
As a slightly obscure aside, when I say old toolbox it’s something of an amalgam between anti-rusting agents (WD-40, greases etc) and the metallic smell we get on our skin from touching certain metals and rusts. This smell isn’t the metal itself by the way; iron ions react with lipid peroxides in our skin secretions to form volatile carbonyl compounds like 1-octen-3-one, similar to the carbonyls responsible for some of the aromas in aged sherry.
Score: 6/10
Review 2/2
Longrow 21yo, Batch 26/10/2022, 46% ABV
AUD$750 minimum retail (AUD$600 paid)
I have similar misgivings about this bottling as with the 18yo; according to Whiskybase, the bulk of maturation occurred in sherry casks. Admittedly there was a fair chunk in bourbon too, though my real concern is the final 10% which spent its life in chardonnay casks. Gun to my head, I would choose most white wine casks over most red wine casks for whisky maturation- much lower tannin extraction among other things. Certainly the colour difference between the bottles, factoring in the three years age difference, would indicate the maturation has been gentler and less cask prominent than the 18yo.
Nose
The cask extracts are gentler here, though there are still some coconut lactones and polished hardwoods to be found. Some brilliant Springbank funk with all manner of beautiful organosulfurs including slightly gamey cooked meats, aromatic alliums, mild passionfruit, a hint of burning hair, yeast slurry and seaweed. Goes on with petrichor, roasted cacao nibs, cigar box and generally some very nice pyrazines.The peat is surprisingly vivacious too with some smoked smallgoods, petrochemicals a la industrial greases, spent engine oil and a touch of Chinese ointments.
Palate
The front half of the palate is excellent, and then the Chardonnay and sherry casks combine to form a distracting rancio with some vinous highlights; mushrooms sauteed in oxidised cooking oils, deglazed with wine. Let’s try our best to focus on that first half.
Much of the nose is present here too, but as with so many of these nuanced and complex beasts the tropical fruits only really make themselves known on the palate through retronasal; fresh pineapple cubes, mango juice, passionfruit, guava and lychee. Counterbalancing this, the somewhat industrial phenolics, thiols, furans and pyrazines combine in an undulating fugue of savoury delight, all before that rancio kicks in.
The Dregs
The needless inclusion of the wine cask component has made it difficult for me to enjoy this as rapturously as I otherwise should. That said, perhaps the bulk of the problem stems from some sherry casks and the chardonnay is just the straw that broke the camel’s back; who knows. In any case, the rancio costs this bottling between one and two points. It’s still a solid bottling with some brilliant facets, and reflects its age and maturity well.
There’s no shortness of complexity, but this is even less my speed than the 18yo based on profile. What’s more, the pricing on this is as mental as the 21yo single cask.
Sadly it’s just too expensive at retail, and overall lands a bit short, despite the better moments.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. TK