Longrow 13 Springbank Society Bottling

Thanks to /u/xile_ for the last surprise dram of the evening.

So here we are. I’m already lost on two other mysteries. Both were immediately guessed correctly by the other two “completely in the dark” reviewers. Now there were two of us completely in the dark with no guesses yet.

Oh, and I had drank quite a few drams and chugged a lot of water by this point. I was holding on, but… could I last to the end?

The answer is no, I’m jumping ahead people.

So we started drinking. And almost immediately, like a crazed mountain lion on a wounded cute woodland animal, /u/devoz guesses: “This is like if Longrow Red had no red in it… but that doesn’t exist!”

Well fuck, there goes my chance to be a hero. I mumbled something about being lost and wrote down my reviews.

This odd ball is Longrow 13 Springbank Society Bottling. For those of you who are happy buying non-exclusive independently bottled whisky (we know you as “the sane”), the Springbank Society is a… well shit, screwed up the setup on that one.

None the less, Springbank releases special bottlings through that. And this is one of those. And I’ve never had one before, so I’m as giddy as a schoolboy being passed around the girls locker room.

So let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Campbeltown

Cask Type: 7 years in Fresh Bourbon Barrel, 6 years in Fresh Chardonnay Hogshead

Distilled: October 2001

Bottled: March 2015

One of: 366 bottles

Abv: 56.7%

Colour: 5Y 9/4

Nose: Honey, cocoa, grapefruit, manure, grapeseed, strawberry foam

Floral, tart, and manure. But enough about my sex life.

This has a lot of farm smells to it. It’s very much like being on a strawberry farm before the manure is put out. Lots of earth notes. The peat isn’t taking over too much.

This almost feels like it’s missing something.

Taste: Pear, honey, peach, grassy, grapefruit, funk

Less earth now, and all light fruits. Very grassy, just as much acid, and funk? The funk gives it away as Longrow, though my drunk brain didn’t want to steal anyone’s thoughts or answers. For… some reason.

God I’m bad at mystery reviews.

It’s still missing something. Like a third of a song is missing.

Finish: Cherry, red pepper jelly, pear, horse manure, salt

Hey, I found all the earth. Welcome to earf, indeed!

Seriously though I like this finish. It’s farmy, earthy, yet there’s some red fruit there. Which is what I thought was missing before.

Conclusion: So I know why they don’t have a line called Longrow White.

Longrow works well with wine. Specifically red, in my opinion. This has all the hallmarks of the Chardonnay cask, save it doesn’t have a way to finish things. It’s missing something, save for the finish, where the Longrow itself says fuck it and gives us a little bit of red fruit.

I liked this. I wouldn’t buy it, but I love the idea of experimenting with it. Maybe use Springbank next time, or even Hazelburn.

82/100

Scotch review #525, Campbeltown review #29, Whisky Network review #877