Springbank 10yo 2022
Early 2022 Release| 46% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something Special.
TL;DR
It’s great, of course
This Just In - Whisky Goes Bad On Shelves!
Try as we might, the only ‘cure’ to the never ending pursuit of commoditising whisky is accepting it and moving on.
Or is it?
I have an idea. But, despite this being the shortest Wally review to date, it’ll still take me a wee bit to get there.
This review may seem a little late. Dramface was already very alive when this whisky was released, but I waited with its review. I was lucky with this one. I bought it from a retailer the day after it was made available, but from a box on the floor. Just like its siblings, it didn’t make the shelf. However, I’ve waited, and this wait is very deliberate. For a couple of reasons.
Firstly, when Dramface went live in February, there was already a Dallas review available - last year’s Springbank 10 from the end of 2021. It is, to date, the highest scoring whisky on this site. It’s very worthy, being a particularly fresh, fruity, mineralic and sublime release. So to review another so soon afterwards seemed lazy, there needed to be a little time and consideration and, most importantly for these bottles, time for the whisky to reveal itself. It’s very cool that we can do this with Springbank, because they have easy to decipher, simple date codes on their bottles - even if those gracefully ageing, such as myself, find it tricky to read. There’s a general acceptance, then, that the batches will, and should, vary. That’s great. It’s malt whisky; by definition a batch-made product.
Then there’s the sensitive and emotive issue of the fomo inferno that swirled around these releases. You may remember a certain 25yo, two powerful Kilkerrans and other in-demand bottles at the time, filling both social media feeds and pavements outside retailers. It was all a bit mad. So it seemed pertinent to let things settle a little while before we stoke the flames any further. Now we see the auction prices, for this entry-level 10yo at least, only a few pounds higher than retail. So would it be naive of me to think so many will feel the scrums just aren’t worth it? Probably.
You see, we’re all responsible in some way. If we’re honest about this humble but compelling wee 10 year old malt, so many of the bottles aren’t actually headed to secondary, they are being bought and hoarded by whisky drinkers. Folk like us. It’s understandable. Even if we don’t want to buy for profit, we want to buy for personal enjoyment. When that proves to be looking all the more difficult, we’ll enter ‘scrums’ here and there or take opportunities to get what we can. Even if we have some on hand already. I did.
However, making things worse, there’s a good chance that we’ll all be a little more parsimonious with our Springbanks et al, simply because we know that in future if we’re not competing with flippers we’ll be competing with each other. The hoarding is further encouraged. Regardless of where the demand comes from, it heightens the demand for everyone. I’d like to say that I’m above all that and I opened it as soon as it arrived, because I did, but that would perhaps be a little disingenuous. If it wasn’t for Dramface (and the absolute banger that was the 2021 release), I may not have opened this when I got it. I may have cherished the sealed bottle a little longer. And that brings me to the third reason I’m writing this review now. I hope to encourage you to open at least one of your Springers you may have on hand. But then do one more thing.
Firstly, though, let’s not forget that Springbank finds itself at the centre of this for one very good reason; because it’s delicious. Pick any roomful of whisky geeks you like and ask them for their desert island distillery or dram and despite a great range of answers, Springbank will bob to the top almost every time. It is very good at stealing whisky hearts. These are the same hearts that are broken when whisky lovers who have been casually drinking and enjoying it for years cannot get it. It’s frustrating. Yet there’s something worse.
Most of the words spread on this availability issue focuses on the side of the buyer; drinker, flipper or otherwise. Occasionally we spare a thought for the retailers (I’ll focus on the honest majority) who suffer abuse while being forced to ‘invest’ in additional costs, whether it’s staffing, the administration of convoluted schemes or upgrades to their online servers - only to see their profits dwarfed by those earned on auction sites. Sad and even more frustrating, no doubt. Yet there’s another layer that gets even less thought.
In a recent conversation with one of the team at Springbank in Campbeltown, I made the mistake of taking a completely unrelated topic into this issue of availability, and his comments surprised me. Yet they shouldn’t have.
He mentioned a palpable difference he’s noticed since this wild and unrelenting demand has peaked over the last couple of years - that is that they hear less and less of how much people are enjoying their whisky. Ouch. That must be difficult. The people who actually make it learn that, just as they can’t meet demand, less of it is being opened and enjoyed. So, in a rare attempt at being succinct, I’ll try to bring this to a point.
“We crossed the Royal Mile to a little cafe, where we discussed the manager’s job at Springbank and Hedley was generous enough to describe my CV as ‘immaculate’. I asked him what budgetary controls were employed by the company. ‘Budgetary controls, Mr McDougall?’, he queried, raising his eyebrows. ‘The only budgetary controls we operate are that we don’t spend any money’ That fact became very obvious once I took up my appointment.”
If you’re lucky enough to have a wee bottle of this that you’re keeping for a special-rainy-occasion-day-moment-person-thing, consider opening it. Maybe comparing it to one that’s already open or comparing it to others you are enjoying. But whatever you do, enjoy it. I say this in the full knowledge that all I’m doing is encouraging you to join me in exacerbating the problem and placing more strain on the next release - because you and I both will now be looking for another replacement. We’re all part of the problem.
But maybe as we do, we can go one step further. We could let Springbank hear that what they make is loved. Not from the pressures of demand or the markers of the secondary prices, but from grateful emails, handshakes, social tags, mentions and plain old human gratitude. Let them know that we understand their silver lining has this cloud, and that we’d rather have difficult-to-get Springbanks than none at all.
The alternative is that they listen to Wally, and place a “best before” date on all the bottles they sell along with a press release detailing that, due to an atypically short shelf-life, Springbank is a terrible thing to hoard, commoditise or invest in. I’m without a more inspiring alternative, in the search of a cure to that which won’t be cured, that’s the best I’ve got. While I ponder though, I’m grateful to have this wee bottle’s assistance.
Thank you Springbank. You make beautiful whisky.
Review
Springbank 10yo, Bottle date code 18.11.21, 46% ABV
£45 and a pocketful of human decency, politeness and good karma
Nose
This is a fruit bomb; mangoes and fruit cocktail in syrup, poached pears in a toffee caramel sauce, creamy overnight oats with walnuts and white chocolate, honeydew melon and prosciutto ham followed by a little ashtray, seaspray and wood shavings.
Palate
Like last year’s, this is another clean Springer. To add to the fruit bowl above we have peach melba, sweet clementine and more ripe melon. With time in the glass and a teardrop of water there’s a swell of a sandalwood and seashell cocktail that rides along with a mildly acidic mid-palate lift. A hint of smoke rounds out a warm and dry-spiced finish that lasts longer than you might expect, before you’re compelled to douse your palate once more. It’s difficult to find better 10 year old malts. Near impossible to find better £45 bottles.
The Dregs
I know that reading a review for something you can’t easily buy is perhaps frustrating, but we’re not talking about a unicorn here. Even if it was, at Dramface we’ll try to cover those too, but there are tons of this stuff out there; sitting on shelves and tucked in cabinets. Waiting. I also know this comes across as a wee bit of pressure for you to open yours. I don’t mean to do that, it’s your whisky - of course - and in this context there’s a fine line between encouragement and bullying. But when something has been made to be this good and this drinkable for £45 it’s all about celebrating being alive. I think it’s a huge shame that we don’t just get it in our glasses and, if we love it, give feedback to those that have taken over a decade to make it; let them know that they’ve made a beautiful thing. Even if this whisky or any other doesn’t actually have an expiration date - we do. And we can’t cash in on our ‘investment’ when we’re deid.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. WMc
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