What’s the recipe for a super full bodied whisky? The Springbank 12 year old Burgundy pretty much defines it. Take your big bodied malt whisky, fully mature it in beefy wine casks, and then bottle it at cask strength. That’s bold! Released in the summer of 2016, the Springbank 12 yo Burgundy was a special release that just sort of popped up out of nowhere. Usually these things are annual traditions or used to commemorate some kind of anniversary, but what was the reasoning for this special release? Probably just that the casks were ready to bottle. If so, this is pretty much the best reason to make a special release. When the whisky’s tasting fine, it’s bottling time!
Anyway, the release may have flown under the radar of some whisky followers due to other happenings around that time such as big distillery anniversaries and Springbank’s annual relase of Springbank 12 yo cask strength. Despite this, it seemed to sell out very quickly in the UK but there seem to be some bottles kicking around in the US. Thank’s to Barry at the Whiskyphiles for the sample of this lovely malt!
Distillery: Springbank
Age: 12 Years Old
Cask: Full maturation in fresh (first fill) ex-burgundy wine casks
ABV: 53.5%
Price: £60 retail when it first came out
TheMadVatter
Nose
Mince pies, the dried fruit kind. Sweet beef jerky. This oily savoury sweet texture. Sweet cabbage from yakisoba. Smokey like grilled mackerel. Rubbery like fried mackerel skin. Deep dark red Berries and fruits like red currants and lingon berry. Nutmeg, cardamom, anise. Slight tumeric. Bavarian sweet mustard and pretzel. Weisswurst.
Taste
Spicy and sticky prickly sweet then becomes a mix of flavours like licorice. Almost overwhelming deep sweetness of crushed black berries. Savoury and oily like cod liver oil. New car tyre rubber. Smoky like burning rubber. Musk.
Finish
Clings to the palate with oily smoky wood. Ash. Black Berries. Tannins. Leather.
Rating
8
Afterthoughts
A really perplexing dram with loads of flavours in the mix. An interplay of macho activities. Makes me think of working on cars while smoking cigars and eating jelly filled donuts and smoked mackerel. I really love all the depth and eccentricities. It might be strange for some but if you are a gustatory explorer this should be right up your alley.
Image at top sourced from:
Adventures in Whisky Land 
