Springbank 10 Year Old Single Malt Review

Springbank likely needs no introduction. It is the darling of the scotch whisky world and the brand that flippers live for…. even ahead of Macallan. As appreciation and hype grew over the last few years things reached a zenith or a low depending on where you stand during the Covid years. Springbank became a holy grail of whisky consumers and especially of the flippers. Anything Springbank monikered was hoovered up as we all indulged in online shopping and most of it ended up on auction sites at vastly inflated prices.

The Local Barley range and anything from the famous Springbank Cage literally could sell for anything between 5 to 10 times the RRP. Yes, it’s free market economics but the use of bots to hoover up online sales and the lack of bottles actually being opened was pretty soul destroying for us whisky enthusiasts. Retailers also got in on the action pricing bottles at secondary market prices just to avail of the Springbank feeding frenzy. Regular consumers of Springbank now found themselves in the position that it was often easier to get a bottle here in the US than it was to get them in the UK & Ireland or continental Europe. You knew it was bad when the often-overlooked triple distilled Hazelburn wouldn’t even make it to shelves such was the demand. Crazy times.

I just ended up in the fortunate position that my local off licence in Coleraine, Fairley’s, had a good relationship with Springbank and had access to pretty much every release. How? Well during Covid Springbank’s owners J & A Mitchell & Co. started removing unscrupulous online retailers from distribution. But as Fairley’s were charging the RRP set by Mitchell’s and were essentially vetting who bought the bottles so as to make sure they were going to drinkers and not flippers as far as reasonably possible then the distribution kept on coming and has stayed as such until now. Local drinkers rewarded for loyalty – not a bad concept, eh?

Springbank 10 Year Old 

Bottled 14/07/22 46% abv/92 proof NC/NCF.          £50.75/€58.50/$70

Campbeltown Single Malt – 60% bourbon cask/40% sherry cask

Nose: Farmyard, dunnage and a diesel engine. Varnish and toffee sauce. Ripe apricots, peach and melon. Papaya too. Malted barley, vanilla extract and a light peatiness. Tinned pineapples and a hint of minerality.

Palate: A nice oily mouthfeel – Again the tropical fruit comes through. Juicy fruit gum, pineapple, peach and honeydew melon. Menthol and a mild pepperiness now along with vanilla custard and dusty oak. Slightly salty alongside gentle peat and a light hint of old leather.

Finish: Medium in length with tropical fruit, light pepper and gentle peat.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: The last time I reviewed Springbank 10 I scored it a 9 out of 10 which was one of the 2021 releases. 

In 2022 I think there were between 4 & 5 10-year-old bottlings, I’ll need to confirm via Whiskybase. At any rate this doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the 2021 release I had. It’s a tropical fruit bomb for sure but without the usual dirt and mischief of Springbank. Still a very capable whisky and one I’m very happy to have. I currently have 2024 bottling waiting back in Ireland for me and I’ll be interested to see how that compares. 

As ever the inconsistencies of Springbank are it’s beauty and it’s also why people keep reading whisky review websites or watch whisky related videos on YouTube. I’m also conscious that I’m pretty lucky to even own a bottle these days although availability does seem to be getting better than the bad old days of Covid.

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