Springbank now joins the ranks of El Dorado, the Holy Grail, Atlantis, Camelot, Shambhala, Kamar-Taj, Lyoness - difficult, almost impossible to find (at affordable prices). Will you enter eternal bliss?
Nose: 3h Smells indeed very mystical, bookshelves, old library, maybe Biblioteca Marciana or Anna Amalia, maybe even Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, paired with a lot of cellar mustiness. A very old wine, red, forest floor, dirt, old dump, an antique shop, but it's not running, the things are rotting away, lost places everywhere. In between, citrus notes and tropical fruits flash through. Extinguished campfire, 4 inches away, 3 hours old. Candyshop - some douchebag has forgotten his pipe, tobacco smoke everywhere. Bothy in the Highlands, very clammy, dunnage warehouse. Mocha and cocoa powder, waves of coconut and icing sugar wafting around, a honeydew melon blissfully exuding its flavours into the ether.
Mouth: Sharbat, sage, soya and balsamic vinegar, sweet and sour, chop suey and gravy. Oak pellets in black tea, dirt, but delicious, with curry and saté. Finish: Slightly tickling cinnamon spiciness, oily mouth-filling flowing down leaving dull teeth behind. A few grains of salt, somewhat maritime - surf of Brittany, thyme and calvados. A bitter almond is annoying af, slight astringency makes you restless. After 5 minutes, you are left with the flavour of an old book that you have bitten into. No holy grail, just whisky as it should be. "If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."