Longrow comes from the Springbank distillery in Campbeltown. It was Cambeltown’s answer to the heavily peated whiskies produced on Islay. For a part of the year Springbrank distills wort from heavily peated malt to make the Longrow series. Longrow Red is a special series of Longrow where the spirit has been matured in red wine casks for some or all of it’s life. Hence the “Red” part of its name. While port might not necessarily be thought of as a red wine, it is red and a fortified wine. So in my book it’s A OK. The Port version is the 3rd in the series and I do not know if they plan to continue releasing Longrow Red’s after this. The 1st in the series was aged in Cabernet Sauvignon casks for the last 4 years of its maturation. The 2nd one was aged in Australian Shiraz casks for the last 5 years of it’s maturation. Only 9,000 bottles of the Port Cask were produced.

Distillery: Springbank (Longrow)

Age: 11 Years

Cask: Port

ABV: 51.8%

Price: ~£60

TheMadVatter

Nose

Mmmmm nice rich mixture of that porty wine-ness and peat. Makes me think of sitting in a lounge with cigars while sipping red wine. The port is really evident on the nose. That nice interplay of sweet and bitter. Almost licorice but not quite licorice. Just that complexity of contrasting aromas. Also a good meatiness to it. Just a lot going on in the nose.

Taste

Absolutely brimming with flavour. Robust in all areas. Ripe red berries and cigars with a hint of chocolate. The rich red berry syrup is at the forefront and shortly followed by the peat which is full of tobacco notes. Everything coats the tongue and mouth.  There is a depth to the flavour that I can’t quite crack yet. I’l have to revisit this again later. It’s like a riddle for the tongue.

Finish

Long with that sweet/bitter port-ness and a steady peat fire slowing crackling in the background.

Rating

9

Afterthoughts

Simply delicious. If you can’t tell already, I really like this dram. It’s hard to find these days but if you run into it, you would be wise to try a wee bit.