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Longrow 18 Year old

Refined and elegant

11 890

@Pierre_WReview by @Pierre_W

16th Dec 2016

1

Longrow 18 Year old
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  • Overall
    90

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Longrow is one of three distinct types of single malt produced at Springbank distillery (next to Springbank and Hazelburn). It is distilled twice with a phenol content in the malted barley of 50-55ppm. The 18-year old expression was first released in 2008. This review relates to the 2014 release.

Wax! – that is what first comes to mind on the nose. Plenty of wax, combined with salt, a whiff of smoke and some brine. Then there are flavours of olive oil and vanilla, followed by a hint of oranges.

The palate is medium-bodied, oily, and a little bit spicy. The vanilla flavours are back, together with notes of apples and lemons. Smoke is there, too, a soft and unobtrusive presence.

The finish is of medium length and pleasantly warming. The wax flavours are back and go together with notes of peat and white pepper. Towards the end the peat turns into an ashy finish.

Some people call this old school whisky, and I suppose it is. A multi-layered dram full of character, this is a Longrow expression that I should have tried long ago. Refined and elegant – definitely one of my whisky highlights of this year!

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8 comments

@BlueNote
BlueNote commented

Nice review @Pierre_W. We could use a lot more of that "old school" style. Cheers.

7 years ago 0

@Pierre_W
Pierre_W commented

Thanks, @BlueNote. Hard to believe that this kind of whisky is still around. I had a few Ardmore bottlings that were similar in character. Good to have once in a while.

7 years ago 0

@Alexsweden
Alexsweden commented

I'm not a big fan of the waxy note. But I've yet to try a longrow i didn't like!

7 years ago 0

@Pierre
Pierre commented

@Alexsweden I am a fan of 'waxy' whiskies, one man's meat is another man's poison and all that!!! @Pierre_W this isn't an expression I've tried, despite being a fan of the distillery. Will seek this out. Nice review. I like your name too wink

7 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Pierre_W
Pierre_W commented

Well said, @Pierre :-). I heard that they used a different maturation regime for the 2016 edition (including rum casks) and that the result was not too convincing. Better then to hunt for an earlier bottling, if you can. But as I said this was one of my whisky highlights of 2016.

7 years ago 0

@Pierre
Pierre commented

@Pierre_W this is going to sound perverse but one of the things I enjoy about the Springbank stable of whiskies is the patchiness of the output. For such an established name they have a relatively low capacity, almost "small batch" in modern terms. This leads to inconsistency, a trait with its own charms. You never know what you're going to get. One batch is fantastic, another... well there's always another. A marketeers nightmare and tough to square if you spend your hard earned money on a bad one but if you get lucky! This in itself is old school!

7 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote commented

@Pierre Very true, I have had a 15 that was a bit funny, and a taste of an 18 that was exquisite, but I have never had a bad Springbank 10. I think it is one of the best bank for the buck youngsters you can get. A desert island dram for me.

7 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Pierre, 'patchiness' is also my experience with Springbank. Springbank "...is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get." Is it ever really horrible? I haven't seen that yet, but I have tasted a good bit of Springbank "meh"...along with some really excellent stuff.

7 years ago 0