Springbank 12 Year Old Cask Strength

@casualtorture 18/332 references to November 28th, 2018. This is usually, the bottling date. From my experience, Springbank 12 Cask Strength tend to get better with time as the fill level in the bottle drops. I wonder if the mania for the 12 year old cask strength has also, been coupled with a drop in it's quality. There was a time not to long ago when the bottles would linger on the store shelves for about a year. Now, it is very difficult to obtain in Canada and gone in days.

@fiddich1980 Interesting. Then what is the 20.7.18 for then? I assumed that was the bottling date of July 20th. This is fairly availible here from what I can tell.

Yes this seems like it would benefit from some air, unfortunately this bottle will be handed off to the owner for next week. I'm glad I got to try it before I got one myself.

One of my favourite bottles that I've tried - and I'll soon be buying my third batch. Interesting that you didn't pick up any sherry type notes (I presume it's still 70% sherry casks, 30% Bourbon casks). This just ticks all the boxes for me - especially the musty, earthy, funky aspects to offset the sweet, fruity notes. Here the 12 CS is not much more than the 10 year old (NZD$110 vs. $90). I enjoy both but the CS is an easy winner in my book.

I’m a big fan of this expression. I agree that most bottles get better the longer they sit, even with gas.

This was certainly my experience with my first batch, in 2011, when as a novice I was not that enthused, but a year or so later it was a great whisky. I may not have been gassing regularly in those days.

I don’t think my second bottle lasted quite a year, but was good from the get-go so it was probably my palate that matured. My current open bottle has maintained its quality for 1.5 years, mostly because I have so many open bottles.

It used to be fairly available in Calgary for about $100, and some of the wine finished ones (like the amazing claretwood I stocked up on) were available for a few years. I think this year I may have seen the 15 and a few other Springbanks, but either I wasn’t looking for the 12CS because I have a spare, or they were pretty scarce.

@casualtorture Springbank usually, releases two batch of 12 cask strength in a year. I wonder if the date code was a spare bottle from the 1st annual release and the written 18/332 is a correction? Maybe, just a quirk of the beverage industry.

I’ma huge fan of this expression. It’s one of the 10 whiskies that makes my “Top 3” list. I haven’t tasted every batch though. And I’ve found many Springbank expressions a little “tight and closed” when the bottle is first opened.

@OdysseusUnbound Tight and closed would be a good descriptor. I'm sure the owner will allow me to try it again once it's had some air time.

Air time is mandatory with this expression,, and anything SB really. I find it truly comes into it's own when around halfway through and about 6 months out from opening. Nice review of a HoF malt. Cheers!