Springbank 16 Years Old Local Barley 54.3% 1999

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Serge Valentin (91)

All the barley came from one single farm in Kintyre, and was floor-malted on location at Springbank. The casks were kept and disgorged/bottled on location as well. Some will say that this is genuine ‘single malt’, while so many are totally international ‘operations’ and carry almost nothing truly ‘local’. Colour: pale gold. Nose: same family, and that’s very obvious on the nose, even if this one has a bit of varnish, possibly from the higher strength. Similar metallic/mineral profile, with perhaps a little more grapefruit and lemon, but the soot and ashes are well there. The shoe polish as well. With water: takes water extremely well. In other words, more quality shoe polish ;-). Mouth (neat): this is really very good, and totally up my alley. Sharp, sooty, very zesty, slightly pungent, with a perfect minerality and a grassy side that reminds me a bit of that Spanish white wine that can be very good (and sometimes awful, to be honest), verdejo. With water: oh yes it swims well. Perfect lemon, soot, paraffin (the good side of paraffin), ashes… What it’s not quite got, and which was in the 1978, is salt. Finish: long, lemony, grassy, and sooty. In other words, perfect. A medicinal side in the aftertaste (iodine, antiseptic). Comments: I was hoping this wood be great, and I’m not disappointed. Old school and just perfect.

Words of Whisky (90)