Springbank 12 Year Old Cask Strength

Ah—so you've got the batch 9? That's the one I've been looking for since Serge reviewed it in such appealing terms. (This was the subject of my "Springbank 12 CS Batches" thread a few weeks ago.) I'm looking forward to seeing your review.

Thanks for the kind words OlJas! Yup i got my notes prepared :) I haven't read Serge's review, i'll be sure to check it out, and your thread on Springbank's 12 CS. Cool avatar btw, i am actually reading through the Silmarillion again now as i am tasting these great whiskies. Good times, winter need not be dull ;)

Lifewaterforce, I'm not pulling up what Serge said at the moment, but his language was all in the realm of old garages and flinty dirty earthy stuff, as I recall, and not nearly no much about sweet stuff. Dirty Springbank is for me! I usually consider his blog entertainment rather than buying advice, but this was an exception.

The bottle in my current unopened hoard that I'm maybe most excited about--despite not being close to being the most expensive--is the now-discontinued 100 Proof. Salty seaweedy lowtidy Springbank, as I recall from the one other bottle I had a few years ago. Perfect!

Winter + Tolkien + great whisky sounds just about perfect to me. And fire. In fact, it's what I look forward to through all the hot sweaty months. You're the first one to comment on my JRRT avatar thing, by the way. I sometimes wonder whether people think it's some kind of freaky-deaky alien thing or who knows what. I've always loved his monogram and I've copied it for my own (JRRT > JRC), which I use on any art projects and the like that I somehow find time for.

Since you're RE-reading The Silmarillion, it should be no spoiler to say my favorite moment is Hurin's stand against the troll-guard of Gothmog in defense of Turgon's retreat: "Aure entuluva! Day shall come again!"

Yes!! That is an epic moment! Which is why, when me& my friends discuss on what else from Tolkien's world could be made into film, I strongly suggest the tale of Hurin. As the Silmarillion is a reconstitution of earlier and later works from Tolkien. My brother (who is a fellow Tolkien fan) finished reading "The children of Hurin" which goes into the events of that lineage more deeply, a lineage that connects the elves of belleriand with the first men of belleriand (Beor), the haladin (2nd house) and starts the greatest lines of the new men (dunedain, gondor, etc).

Hurin is an epic character, with a tragic end. Turgon is just a badass elven king, and his city is a place i would love to see someone try and recreate on the big screen.

On a whisky note, review of the batch 9 coming early next week :)

If you pick up The Children of Hurin yourself, try to get one of the editions illustrated by Alan Lee. Good stuff.

I will :) Thanks for the tip.

Great notes! I was in Boston this last weekend and picked up a bottle of the SB 12yr CS. Can't wait to give it a try!

The only number I found that looked like it could be a batch # is printed on the glass at the front bottom of the bottle... "14/277". I am guessing this means I have either 14 or 277? Maybe batch 14, bottle 277?

Springbank's are kind of hard to come by where I am, this is my first bottle...

BARutledge, I have no idea what the 14/277 means*, but you can see which batch you have by checking the ABV against this magic decoder ring:

benswhisky.co.uk/2014/07/…

(*Actually, I would guess that means it was bottled on the 277th day of 2014. And if so, I'm curious how that compares with the batch's reputed release date.)

Awesome, thanks OlJas! Looks like I have batch 9.

@BARutledge I am posting my review of batch 9 now in comparison to this batch 5 (sorry OlJas, i have been away from home in over a month, busy times) and all i can say is: You won't be dissapointed ;)