Springbank 12 Years Old Red Thistle 46% NV

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Serge Valentin (87)

Colour: pale white wine.

Nose: I love Springbank when it gets properly naked like this. It begins with all kinds of waxy citrus peels, raw barley, cooling wort, grist - really the innards of a working distillery held in a glass - and faint glimmer of earthy peat smoke in the background. There are also wet beach pebbles, ink, clay, lemon barley water and a hint of ointment. A tad quiet overall but beautifully pure.

Mouth: rather dry and chiselled, a young riesling springs to mind. Lots of olive oil, some preserved lemons, a scraping of butter on white toast, watercress, chalk and limestone. A tad peppery as well.

Finish: Good length, lightly ashy, citric and with a rather brittle and flinty minerality.

Comments: Serge scored this one - or a sibling batch - 87 all the way back in 2007, I can’t find any reason to disagree with that score. Interestingly, I think the contemporary bottlings of the 10 year old are superior to this by a fair few points.