Longrow 11 Year, 1st Fill Sauternes Hogshead Single Cask
First and foremost; if you ever see a single cask of any Springbank expression, buy it. Secondly, and more specifically, if you are a lover of smoke and peat, and the single cask is a Longrow, BUY IT. I could talk about Springbank at great lengths, and plan to in future posts, however as this review pertains to Springbanks peated expression, Longrow, I will focus on that.
Longrow is double distilled & peated to around 50 ppm. The malted barley which is used to produce Longrow is smoked for up to 48 hours. Spingbank also uses direct fire stills (one of the few left in the industry). From the local sourcing of barley to the bottling of their whisky, Springbank does everything on-site, from A-Z, and I feel this is what makes Springbank single malt, in particular Longrow, so special.
This specific expression was aged for 11 years in one single 1st Fill Sauternes Hogshead. The end result is nothing short of spectacular and will enchant any lover of peat. Where Longrow’s influence typically comes from ex bourbon and some sherry, this particular bottling shows the beauty of what can be achieved from wood influenced from Sauternes. Where sherry typically dominates, Sauterne is a notch quieter. That being said, this bottling is by no means any less rich or robust, in fact quite the opposite. Due in part to Springbank’s brilliance of cask selection and dunnage warehousing, this 11 year old Longrow shows the magnitude of artistry and prowess that they are capable, and why so many Scotch distilleries (should) attain to be more like them.
Longrow 11 Year, 1st Fill Sauternes Hogshead Single Cask
ABV: 56.6% // 113.2 proof
Age: 11 years
Vintage: 2007
Distilled: November 2007
Bottled: August 2019
Bottle: 1 of 246
Barrel: 1st Fill Sauternes Hogshead (Single Cask)
Color: Mahogany
Non-chill filtered, Natural Color
Nose: Charred Mesquite, smoked applesauce, sweet BBQ marinade & smoked ketchup with a dollop of strawberry jam. Gristy, tangy umami & musty grape. The Sauterne hogshead offers soft fruit undertones. Thick and chewy with the sweetest peat seaweed reek I’ve encountered yet…almost echoing whispers of Laphroaig TCP.
Palate: Cured meats covered in Pomegranate reduction. Beautiful weight. Rich barely sugars with the black cracked pepper and oils fighting for dominance. Virile alcohol bite that almost dominates until the Hogshead wins out.
Finish: Very Long. Beautiful heat, semi-bitter. Charred French raspberry tarts. Pillows of soot smoke. BBQ grist goes and goes and goes....
Bourbon and House Rating: 92.5
Truly a Scottish gem. Single Casks from Springbank are something to behold.
