Springbank 14 Year Fino Cask Strength

Here is my recent video review:

www.youtube.com/watch

I reviewed this bottle about three months ago and it has improved dramatically in the past month since I took it to a party and it got down to about two-thirds empty.

If I had known how better it would get, I would have poured half into an empty bottle and let both oxygenate for a while and then poured it back into the Springbank bottle again.

Nose: Rich cream, honey, Granny Smith apple, pie crust, toasted barley malt, butter scotch.

Mouth: Honey comb, toffee, strawberries, quince, smoke, cashew, graham crackers, brine, white chocolate, oat bran.

Finish: Nice and long. Pie crust again, baked peaches, Tibetan pink salt, brine, rhubarb, turbanado sugar.

One the death: brown sugar, cream, café au lait, Werthers butterscotch hard candy.

Adding water is ill-advised in the case of this fino. It can bring out a slight sulfuric tinge and the whisky waters down terribly fast for some reason, given its relatively admirable ABV. A vibrant, many-faceted creature. Mercurial and dynamic. It really changes depending upon what you have already eaten in the past thirty minutes, as well as how long it's been in the glass.

Okay, so I have a wee sample of the Claret left. This will allow me to compare it with the bottle of Fino I just cracked open for the first time.

First, I shall review the Fino.

Nose: Rich cream, honey, Granny Smith apple, pie crust, toasted barley malt, butter scotch.

Mouth: Honey, brine, caramel, strawberries, quince, smoke, cashew, graham crackers, sea salt, white chocolate, oat bran.

Finish: Nice and long. Pie crust again, baked peaches, brine, seaweed, rhubarb, turbanado sugar.

One the death: brown sugar, cream, Werthers butterscotch hard candy.

Adding water is ill-advised in the case of the fino. It can bring out a slight sulfuric tinge and the whisky waters down terribly fast for some reason, given its relatively admirable ABV. A fragile creature, indeed.

The shift from brininess to sweet on the finish is very sudden, like a roller coaster ride.

I've already done tasting notes on the Claret, so I will just say that it is more dignified than the upstart Fino, which is suprising since the Fino is two years its senior.

The Fino actually tastes younger. However, the sudden shifts and changes in the mouth rarely happen with whiskies younger than 14 years, so that aspect of it is a bit less of a shocker, although I must say that whiskies like this are not all that common. The claret wins, but the fino is a wild fun ride. Which do I like more? The fino, but just barely. The claret is more "steady on" then the fino. It has its sea legs about it.

Of course, sometimes "unexpected" is just what the doctor ordered. Charles Darwin be damned. He was a hopeless racist and a eugenicist anyhow. And if you doubt me, read "The Descent of Man."

Evolution happens in fits and starts, and not always through "mutations." When it comes to Springbankery of the Finoesque variety, the evolution might just propel your appreciation of whisky into a new category of strange, like some sort of furtive cryptid peeping through your window on a stormy window at night . . . then again, it is very blustery outside tonight where I live. Oh no, I'm scaring myself. Time for another dram of Fino to settle my only slightly ruffled nerves. . . there, that's better. Now what was I saying?

A delightful dram. I have a recent bottle of Claret on the brain, and this eases me pain at the loss. Yes, I do like this Springbanker.

Eye: Rich grand sight that really catches the light. One of the best natural colors I've been in some time. A deep chestnut.

Nose: Typical Sprinbank must without water. With water, the sweet scents come out. A delightfully curdled hint might be a flaw to some but I revel in this trademark Springbank characteristic that is present in spades here, clover, nutmeg, maple, caramel, faint fino, very rich malt overtones, alcohol heat to some degree without water.

Yes, I can smell high alcohol content. In this case it's right welcome up the ole nostrils. And why not? I like to maintain that it is not only possible but in rare cases recommended to attempt a wee buzz by huffing whisky fumes and I've been known to do it (tactfully) in movie theaters, much to the horror of people sitting near! Ha! Too bad for them!

Mouth reaction: Front of tongue, roof of mouth, brings out salivary glands nicely.

Flavour: Musty oak leaves in fall, horse's oats warming in the summer sun, marshmellow (homemade), maple syrup drizzled on a hot buckwheat waffle, cream, hazelnuts, caramel, nougat, honeysuckle sap, two day old hay dry in the fields.

Finish: Medium long, very good, plays off the roof of the mouth to an unusual degree; rich sugars, bitter caramel, roast chestnuts, dried Moxy (red wine) in the glass, turning to hard wood ash on the death.

I wonder if this whisky had a limited run? I can't imagine why else not more has been said of it. A charming bottle. In many ways, more interesting than the fino but the fino is more sophisticated and elegant despite it's two years the junior. The roof of the moutn is last to release this intoxicatingly beguiling ichor.