Springbank 1997 11 Year Old Madeira Wood

My wife, sister and brother in law had recently gone to Helvetica, our local whisky bar, to try some new whiskies.

The joys of the whisky geek.

The first whisky had been intended to be Springbank 11 yr old Madeira Wood Cask Strength.

However a problem immediately developed, actually two problems to be honest.

The first problem was that I saw the Hakushu 18 year old and it being my favorite Japanese distillery I knew I had to try a dram of it.

The second problem that came up was that the Hakushu 18 year old was pretty bad.

So I decided that the next dram NEEDED to be the Springbank Madeira Wood.

I've REALLY been wanting to try some more Campbeltown whiskies and this seemed like the perfect time to do it!

I ordered the Madeira Wood Finish while my brother in law ordered the Springbank 12 year old Claret Wood.

We decide that we'll try each others whiskies to save us a wee bit of cash.

As is custom I let my wife have first dibs on my Madeira Wood.

She grins and then hands the whisky back to me.

Oranges, hints of chocolate, demerara sugar, dust, peaches, and hints of smoke make this a very cool complex nose.

This is a much better nose then the Hakushu 18 yr old!

I hand the glass back to my wife to taste and wait to see the verdict.

She takes a sip and then grins again.

She hands the glass back to me and I'm very eager to see what this whisky holds in store for me!

Right across from us my brother and sister in law are enjoying the Claret Wood finish just as much as we are the Madeira Wood.

Spice! Smoke! Fruits! Yum!

Smoke is the first thing to hit me, then chocolate oranges, apricots, spices, salt!

In short very big whisky.

Very awesome whisky.

Long dry finish that starts of with a lot of smoke, then a big salty finish with fruits hidden inside it all.

Wow.

Just wow.

AWESOME Campbeltown whisky!

I then hand my brother in law my glass to try as he hands us the Claret Wood to try.

But more on those later!

The Madeira Wood Cask Strength is a BIG whisky and of the Campbeltown whiskies that I've tried so far, is by far the most approachable for someone new to whisky. The wine barrel finishing really eases back alot of the acetone, chemical flavors that quite a few of the Campbeltown whiskies I've tried in the past were full of, making it a much less frighting whisky, but keeping the intensity that I love.

Now I've never seen this whisky in any bottle shop, but from looking around online it is available in Australia for around $150 AUS which considering that I've heard that it's limited to about 19 to 20 thousand bottles, is a really good price for such as awesome full strength whisky!

If you're interested in trying a Campbeltown whisky and you see this bad boy.

Grab it!

Find where to buy Springbank whisky